Information distribution system and electronic device

ABSTRACT

An information distribution system includes an electronic device; and a server system including at least one information distribution apparatus that communicates with the electronic device via a network. The electronic device includes an information requester configured to transmit, to the server system, a request to distribute information, the request being transmitted together with identification information of the electronic device; and an information displayer configured to display, on a display device, the information transmitted from the server system. The server system includes a contract information acquirer configured to acquire contract information relating to a contract for a service provided to the electronic device; an information generator configured to identify the contract information of the electronic device based on the identification information, and generate the information according to the contract information; and an information distributor configured to distribute the information generated by the information generator, to the electronic device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 toJapanese Patent Application No. 2016-241652, filed on Dec. 13, 2016 andJapanese Patent Application No. 2017-042260, filed on Mar. 6, 2017, thecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an information distribution system andan electronic device.

2. Description of the Related Art

There are known information distribution systems for transmitting byusing electronic display devices such as displays, at locations wherepeople pass by or where people may exist, such as outdoors, storefronts,public spaces, and transportation facilities. Information distributionsystems and information distributed by information distribution systemsare referred to as digital signage, which is used at various locations.

However, it is unlikely that all the information distributed by theinformation distribution system is effective for viewers. In order forthe information distribution system to effectively provide theinformation, it is considered important to distribute the information,which is considered beneficial to the viewer, at appropriate timings.For this reason, a technique has been devised for increasing thedistribution probability of information considered to be beneficial tothe viewer (for example, see Patent Document 1). Patent Document 1discloses an information distribution system that collects usageinformation of an electronic device and display capability informationof a display device, and extracts and processes advertisementinformation according to the collected information.

Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application PublicationNo. 2015-180986

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An aspect of the present invention provides an information distributionsystem and an electronic device in which one or more of thedisadvantages of the related art are reduced.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided aninformation distribution system including an electronic device; and aserver system including at least one information distribution apparatusthat communicates with the electronic device via a network, wherein theelectronic device includes an information requester configured totransmit, to the server system, a request to distribute information, therequest being transmitted together with identification information ofthe electronic device; and an information displayer configured todisplay, on a display device, the information transmitted from theserver system, and wherein the server system includes a contractinformation acquirer configured to acquire contract information relatingto a contract for a service provided to the electronic device; aninformation generator configured to identify the contract information ofthe electronic device based on the identification information, andgenerate the information according to the contract information; and aninformation distributor configured to distribute the informationgenerated by the information generator, to the electronic device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A to 10 are diagrams illustrating an example of informationprovided by an information providing system according to a firstembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an example of a schematic overall configuration diagram of theinformation distribution system according to the first embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is an example of a hardware block diagram of an image formingapparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an example of a hardware block diagram of a remote monitoringapparatus, a consumable item ordering apparatus, a consumable itemdelivery apparatus, or an information distribution apparatus accordingto the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a softwareconfiguration of the image forming apparatus according to the firstembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an example of a functional block diagram of the image formingapparatus, the remote monitoring apparatus, the consumable item orderingapparatus, the consumable item delivery apparatus, and the informationdistribution apparatus included in the information distribution systemaccording to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating the overalloperation of the information distribution system according to the firstembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is an example of a flowchart for describing the operation whenthe remote monitoring apparatus receives the device informationaccording to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating a procedure foran operation unit to acquire contents via a main body according to thefirst embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a procedure in which acontent generating unit generates content according to the firstembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of consumable item deliverystatus content according to the first embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of remote monitoringservice introduction content according to the first embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of consumable item deliverypromotion content according to the first embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 14 is an example of a diagram for describing the relationshipbetween a contract state and an information display icon according tothe first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating an operationprocedure of the image forming apparatus and the informationdistribution apparatus relating to the information display iconaccording to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is an example of a schematic overall configuration diagram ofthe information distribution system according to a second embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 17 is an example of a functional block diagram of the image formingapparatus, the remote monitoring apparatus, the consumable item orderingapparatus, the consumable item delivery apparatus, and the informationdistribution apparatus included in the information distribution systemaccording to the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating the overalloperation of the information distribution system in the case ofnon-delivery according to the second embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 19 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating the overalloperation of the information distribution system in the case of deliverycompleted according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of consumable item deliverystatus content according to the second embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 21 is a table required for a content generating unit to create thetoner type according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 22 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a procedure in whichthe content generating unit determines the toner type and the toner iconaccording to the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 23 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating an operationprocedure of the image forming apparatus and the informationdistribution apparatus relating to the information display iconaccording to a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 24 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a procedure of theicon information providing unit for creating the information displayicon according to the third embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 25A and 25B are examples of diagrams illustrating examples ofcontents displayed by the operation units having different sizesaccording to the third embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 26A and 26B illustrate examples of the consumable item deliverystatus content and the delivery history list, respectively, according tothe third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 27 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating a procedure bythe image forming apparatus for displaying the delivery history listscreen from the consumable item delivery status content according to thethird embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 28 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a process by theinformation distribution application and information distributionapparatus when the information display icon is pressed according to thethird embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 29 is an example of a diagram for describing the relationshipbetween the contract state and the information display icon according tothe third embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the related art, there has been a problem that the informationprovided by the information distribution system may cause the viewer tomake an erroneous recognition. A specific example will be described. Inan electronic device such as an image forming apparatus, there are caseswhere the manufacturer of the image forming apparatus provides a servicefor remotely monitoring the electronic device (hereinafter referred toas a “remote monitoring service”). Furthermore, there are also caseswhere a service is provided, in which a delivery company automaticallydelivers consumable items by using the remote monitoring service(hereinafter referred to as a “consumable item automatic deliveryservice”). For example, when the electronic device transmits a messageindicating toner end to a remote monitoring apparatus, the remotemonitoring apparatus informs the delivery company, such that the toneris automatically delivered to the customer of the electronic device,without the customer of the electronic device ordering the toner.

When the information distribution system is applied to an electronicdevice, there are cases where the information distribution systemtransmits an advertisement and a notification of the remote monitoringservice and the automatic delivery service, to the electronic device.However, there may be cases where the customer has already made acontract for the remote monitoring service and the automatic deliveryservice. In a case where the customer has already made a contract, andinformation of these services is displayed on the electronic device, theviewer may erroneously recognize that the customer has not subscribed tothe automatic delivery service and that there is a need to order thetoner in the case of toner end. This erroneous recognition may cause thetoner to be ordered in duplicate.

A problem to be solved by an embodiment of the present invention is toprovide an information providing system by which erroneous recognitioncan be avoided.

An information distribution system and an information display methodperformed by an image forming apparatus according to embodiments of thepresent invention will be described by referring to the accompanyingdrawings.

First Embodiment

FIGS. 1A to 1C are diagrams illustrating an example of information(content to be described later) provided by the information providingsystem according to the present embodiment. FIG. 1A illustrates a homescreen 401 in a state where the viewer has logged in. The home screen401 is a screen on which icons of various applications are, displayed ina selectable manner. On the home screen 401, an information display icon90 referred to as a widget is arranged. The information display icon 90displays the content of an event and characters for guiding the displayof the content, and notifies that an information distribution apparatus70 is preparing some kind of content.

(1) When an Image Forming Apparatus 80 has Made a Contract for theConsumable Item Automatic Delivery Service

When the viewer presses the information display icon 90, the imageforming apparatus 80 displays a consumable item delivery status content402 illustrated in FIG. 1B. The consumable item delivery status content402 displays the present delivery status of the consumable item as thecontent. The viewer can recognize what kind of delivery status theconsumable item is in.

(2) When the Image Forming Apparatus 80 has not Made a Contract for theConsumable Item Automatic Delivery Service

When the viewer presses the information display icon 90, the imageforming apparatus 80 displays a consumable item delivery promotioncontent 403 illustrated in FIG. 10. The consumable item deliverypromotion content 403 is content for prompting the viewer to make acontract for the consumable item automatic delivery service. Since theviewer will consider making a contract for the consumable item automaticdelivery service, the manufacturer of the image forming apparatus 80 canincrease the number of contracts for the consumable item automaticdelivery service.

As described above, the information distribution system according to thepresent embodiment can change the content to be distributed, accordingto the contract state for the consumable item automatic deliveryservice, so that the possibility of erroneous recognition by the viewercan be reduced.

<Terms>

The information may be any information that is useful for the viewer.The information may contain information that the manufacturer (includingthe provider) of the electronic device can benefit by having theinformation viewed by the viewer. In the present embodiment, theinformation will be described by using the term “content”.

Furthermore, the distribution of information may include other aspectssuch as sending information, providing information, transmittinginformation, and displaying information, etc.

Furthermore, a service contract means that the customer of theelectronic device and the manufacturer of the electronic device haveagreed on the service. Contract information is information on thecontents of this contract. Also, service refers to some usefulhospitality for the customer of the electronic device. For example,there are a service for remotely monitoring an electronic device (remotemonitoring service) and a service for a delivery company toautomatically deliver consumable items (consumable item automaticdelivery service).

<System Configuration Example—First Embodiment>

FIG. 2 is an example of a schematic overall configuration diagram of theinformation distribution system 100. The information distribution system100 includes the image forming apparatus 80, a remote monitoringapparatus 40 that monitors the image forming apparatus 80, a consumableitem ordering apparatus 50 that receives a consumable item orderingrequest from the remote monitoring apparatus 40, a consumable itemdelivery apparatus 60 that receives the consumable item ordering requestfrom the consumable item ordering apparatus 50, and the informationdistribution apparatus 70 that provides the content to the image formingapparatus 80. Furthermore, the remote monitoring apparatus 40 isconnected to a sales company server 110 operated by a sales company thatis a wholesaler or a retailer of the consumable items. The followingdescription is given assuming that the sales company server 110 is notincluded in the information distribution system 100.

Note that it is assumed that elements in the information distributionsystem 100 are communicably connected to each other over a network. Thenetwork is constructed by a Local Area Network (LAN) of a facility wherethe image forming apparatus 80 is arranged, a provider network of theprovider connecting the LAN to the Internet, and a line provided by aline operator, etc. When the network has multiple LANs, the network isreferred to as Wide Area Network (WAN) or the Internet, etc. The networkmay be constructed by either wired or wireless lines, or may beconstructed by a combination of wired and wireless lines. Furthermore,when the image forming apparatus 80 has a circuit switching typecommunication apparatus such as third generation (3G) or Long-TermEvolution (LTE), the image forming apparatus 80 can connect to theInternet via a line of a line operator. Note that the Internet is anetwork that connects computers on a global scale, in which networksaround the world are interconnected.

The remote monitoring apparatus 40 is an information processingapparatus that receives device information (to be described later) fromthe image forming apparatus 80 and transmits consumable item orderinginformation 97 to the consumable item ordering apparatus 50 according tothe contract information, when a consumable item runs short (out ofstock). Furthermore, the remote monitoring apparatus 40 transmits theremaining amount of consumable items to the sales company server 110according to the contract information. Furthermore, the remotemonitoring apparatus 40 monitors whether the image forming apparatus 80is operating normally.

Furthermore, the remote monitoring apparatus 40 periodically transmitscontract information 99 related to the contract of the service to whichthe image forming apparatus 80 is subscribed, to the informationdistribution apparatus 70. Accordingly, the information distributionapparatus 70 can generate content corresponding to the contractinformation 99.

The service includes a remote monitoring service and an automaticdelivery service. However, in the present embodiment, it is assumed thatthe customer of the image forming apparatus 80 has already subscribed tothe remote monitoring service. However, even if the image formingapparatus 80 is not subscribed to the remote monitoring service, theimage forming apparatus 80 can execute an information distributionapplication to be described later. Furthermore, the automatic deliveryservice includes a delivery service by the consumable item deliveryapparatus 60 and a delivery service by the sales company. The former isreferred to as “consumable item automatic delivery”, and the latter isreferred to as “consumable item remaining amount information provision”.

The consumable item ordering apparatus 50 is an information processingapparatus that manages the ordering of consumable items to the deliveryof consumable items, and is an information processing apparatus thattransmits a consumable item delivery request 94 to the consumable itemdelivery apparatus 60 based on the consumable item ordering information97. After sending the delivery request for consumable items, theconsumable item ordering apparatus 50 manages the delivery status up tothe completion of delivery, and performs a charging process, etc., forthe customer after delivery (the timing of charging varies depending onthe contract, and there are cases where no fees are charged).

Furthermore, the consumable item ordering apparatus 50 periodicallytransmits a consumable item delivery status 98 to the informationdistribution apparatus 70. Since the delivery status is included in theconsumable item delivery status 98, the information distributionapparatus 70 can generate the consumable item delivery status content402.

The consumable item delivery apparatus 60 is an information processingapparatus that manages the delivery of consumable items. The consumableitem delivery apparatus 60 accepts the input of the delivery result bythe deliveryman of the consumable item and transmits the delivery statusto the consumable item ordering apparatus 50. The deliveryman carries aterminal, and inputs information identifying the consumable item thathas been delivered. The terminal wirelessly transmits the deliverystatus to the consumable item delivery apparatus 60. Alternatively, adeliveryman may manually input the information from a terminal wired tothe consumable item delivery apparatus 60.

The information distribution apparatus 70 generates content according tothe contract information and distributes the content in response to arequest from the image forming apparatus 80. Content is generated at therequested timing. However, the content may be generated at a fixedtiming such as twice a day, for example. Accordingly, when the imageforming apparatus 80 requests content, the content can be promptlyacquired.

The image forming apparatus 80 is an example of an electronic devicethat forms and outputs an image on a print medium such as paper. Theimage forming apparatus 80 includes an operation panel (including adisplay device such as a display) described later, and displays thecontent on the operation panel. As long as the electronic deviceincludes a display device, the electronic device may be a projector, anelectronic blackboard, a video conference terminal, a car navigationdevice, and a digital camera, etc., other than the image formingapparatus 80. Furthermore, the image forming apparatus 80 may bereferred to as a printer, a copier, a copying machine, a multi-functionperipheral (MFP), a scanner, and a facsimile machine, etc.

An application (hereinafter referred to as a “device information reportapplication”) for providing the function of transmitting deviceinformation 96 (described later) to the remote monitoring apparatus 40,is installed in advance in the image forming apparatus 80 (a main body10 described later). Furthermore, an application for providing afunction for requesting the content to the information distributionapparatus 70 and for providing a function for displaying the content(hereinafter referred to as “information distribution application”), isinstalled in advance in the image forming apparatus 80 (an operationunit 20 described later).

The sales company server 110 is an information processing apparatus thatreceives a remaining amount 95 of a consumable item from the remotemonitoring apparatus 40. The remote monitoring apparatus 40 refers tothe contract information 99 and transmits the remaining amount 95 of theconsumable item to the sales company server 110, when the customer hasmade a contract for consumable item remaining amount informationprovision. Furthermore, when the customer has made a contract for theconsumable item automatic delivery, the remote monitoring apparatus 40transmits the consumable item ordering information 97 to the consumableitem ordering apparatus 50 according to the toner remaining amount inthe device information. Since the sales company server 110 does notcommunicate with the information distribution apparatus 70, the deliverystatus of consumable items managed by the sales company server 110 isnot provided to the information distribution apparatus 70.

The remote monitoring apparatus 40, the consumable item orderingapparatus 50, the consumable item delivery apparatus 60, and theinformation distribution apparatus 70 may all be referred to as serversin some cases. Since the remote monitoring apparatus 40, the consumableitem ordering apparatus 50, the consumable item delivery apparatus 60,and the information distribution apparatus 70 are formed of one or moreservers, these are referred to as a server system.

<Delivery Route of Consumable Items-First Embodiment>

Note that in the present embodiment, consumable items are delivered bythe following two routes.

Route 1: remote monitoring apparatus 40→consumable item orderingapparatus 50→consumable item delivery apparatus 60→customer

Route 2: remote monitoring apparatus 40→sales company server110→customer

The image forming apparatus 80 according to the present embodiment hasmade a contract for the remote monitoring service. Therefore, the imageforming apparatus 80 transmits the device information 96 to the remotemonitoring apparatus 40.

There is a case where the image forming apparatus 80 of route 1 has madea contract for consumable item automatic delivery (automatic deliveryservice) and a case where the image forming apparatus 80 of route 1 hasnot made a contract for consumable item automatic delivery (automaticdelivery service). Furthermore, there is a case where the image formingapparatus 80 of route 2 has made a contract for providing the consumableitem remaining amount to the sales company server 110 (consumable itemremaining amount information provision), and a case where the imageforming apparatus 80 of route 2 has not made a contract for providingthe consumable item remaining amount to the sales company server 110(consumable item remaining amount information provision). In a casewhere the image forming apparatus 80 has made a contract for consumableitem remaining amount information provision, it is considered that thesales company automatically delivers consumable items (although notnecessarily so).

In a case where the viewer of the image forming apparatus 80 of route 1has not made a contract for consumable item automatic delivery, theinformation distribution apparatus 70 is to deliver an advertisement oran notification of the automatic delivery service. In a case where theviewer of the image forming apparatus 80 of route 1 has made a contractfor consumable item automatic delivery, the information distributionapparatus 70 is not to deliver an advertisement or an notification ofthe automatic delivery service. In this case, instead of delivering anadvertisement or an notification of the automatic delivery service, theinformation distribution system 100 may provide the delivery status.

Furthermore, when the viewer of the image forming apparatus 80 of route2 has not made a contract for consumable item remaining amountinformation provision, the information distribution apparatus 70 is todeliver an advertisement of the automatic delivery service. However,when the viewer of the image forming apparatus 80 of route 2 has made acontract for consumable item remaining amount information provision, theinformation distribution apparatus 70 is not to deliver an advertisementof the automatic delivery service. In this case, the delivery statuscannot be provided because the delivery status is unknown to theinformation distribution apparatus 70.

The information distribution service according to the present embodimentprovides appropriate contents to each image forming apparatus 80 inconsideration of such a contract state.

<Example of Hardware Configuration-First Embodiment>

FIG. 3 is an example of a hardware block diagram of the image formingapparatus 80. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus 80includes the main body 10 and the operation unit 20. The main body 10and the operation unit 20 are communicatively connected to each othervia an exclusive-use communication path 30. As the communication path30, for example, a communication path of a Universal Serial Bus (USB)standard can be used; however, the communication path may be of anystandard regardless of whether the communication path is wired orwireless.

Note that the main body 10 can perform an operation corresponding to theoperation accepted by the operation unit 20. Furthermore, the main body10 can also communicate with an external device such as a clientpersonal computer (PC), and can perform an operation according to aninstruction received from the external device.

Next, the hardware configuration of the main body 10 will be described.As illustrated in FIG. 3, the main body 10 includes a Central ProcessingUnit (CPU) 11, a Read-Only Memory (ROM) 12, a Random Access Memory (RAM)13, a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) 14, a communication interface (I/F) 15, aconnection I/F 16, and an engine unit 17, which are interconnected via asystem bus 18. As a matter of convenience of description, in FIG. 3, themain body 10 includes the HDD 14 as an example. However, for example,there may be a configuration that does not include the HDD 14 and cannotensure a sufficient storage area.

The CPU 11 comprehensively controls the operation of the main body 10.The CPU 11 executes programs stored in the ROM 12 or the HDD 14, etc.,with the RAM 13 functioning as a work area, to control the overalloperation of the main body 10 and to implement various functions such asa copy function, a scanner function, a facsimile function, and a printerfunction, etc., described above.

The communication I/F 15 is an interface for connecting to a network 8.The connection I/F 16 is an interface for communicating with theoperation unit 20 via the communication path 30.

The engine unit 17 is hardware for performing general-purposeinformation processing and processing other than communication forimplementing a copy function, a scanner function, a facsimile function,and a printer function. For example, the engine unit 17 includes ascanner (image reading unit) that scans and reads an image of adocument, a plotter (image forming unit) that performs printing on asheet material such as paper, and a fax unit that performs faxcommunication, etc. Furthermore, it is possible to provide specificoptions such as a finisher for sorting printed sheet materials and anautomatic document feeder (ADF) for automatically feeding originaldocuments.

Next, the hardware configuration of the operation unit 20 will bedescribed. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the operation unit 20 includes aCPU 21, a ROM 22, a RAM 23, a flash memory 24, a communication I/F 25, aconnection I/F 26, and an operation panel 27, which are interconnectedvia a system bus 28. As a matter of convenience of description, in FIG.3, the operation unit 20 includes the flash memory 24 as an example.However, there may be a configuration without the flash memory 24, forexample. In short, the image forming apparatus 80 may not have a storagedevice for storing the received contents.

<<Remote Monitoring Apparatus 40, Consumable Item Ordering Apparatus 50,Consumable Item Delivery Apparatus 60, Information DistributionApparatus 70—First Embodiment>>

FIG. 4 is an example of a hardware block diagram of the remotemonitoring apparatus 40, the consumable item ordering apparatus 50, theconsumable item delivery apparatus 60, or the information distributionapparatus 70. Here, a description will be given with regard to theremote monitoring apparatus 40. The remote monitoring apparatus 40includes a CPU 301, a ROM 302, a RAM 303, a communication I/F 304, aninput device 305, a display device 306, and a HDD 307. The CPU 301comprehensively controls the operations of the remote monitoringapparatus 40. The ROM 302 is a non-volatile memory that stores variouskinds of data such as programs. The RAM 303 is a volatile memory thatfunctions as a work area of various processes executed by the CPU 301.The communication I/F 304 is an interface for connecting to the network8. The input device 305 is a device used for inputting operations by theuser, and is formed of, for example, a mouse and a keyboard, etc. Thedisplay device 306 is a device for displaying various types ofinformation, such as a liquid crystal display device, etc.

The hardware configuration of the consumable item ordering apparatus 50,the consumable item delivery apparatus 60, and the informationdistribution apparatus 70 may be the same as or different from that ofthe remote monitoring apparatus 40; either way, there is no problem indescribing the present embodiment.

Note that it is preferable that the remote monitoring apparatus 40, theconsumable item ordering apparatus 50, the consumable item deliveryapparatus 60, or the information distribution apparatus 70 is compatiblewith cloud computing. Cloud computing is a usage form of a computer inwhich resources on a network are utilized without being conscious ofspecific hardware resources.

The illustrated hardware configuration does not need to be housed in asingle housing or provided as a unitary device, but rather representshardware elements that are preferably provided in the remote monitoringapparatus 40. Furthermore, in order to be compatible with cloudcomputing, the physical configuration of the remote monitoring apparatus40 according to the present embodiment need not be fixed; hardwareresources may be dynamically connected/disconnected according to theload.

<Software Configuration—First Embodiment>

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a softwareconfiguration of the image forming apparatus 80. As illustrated in FIG.5, the main body 10 includes an application layer 101, a service layer102, and an Operating System (OS) layer 103. The entities of theapplication layer 101, the service layer 102, and the OS layer 103 arevarious kinds of software stored in the ROM 12 and the HDD 14, etc.Various functions are provided as the CPU 11 executes these softwareitems.

The software of the application layer 101 is application software (inthe following description, simply referred to as “application”) foroperating a hardware resource to provide a predetermined function.Examples of the application include a copy application for providing acopy function, a scanner application for providing a scanner function, afax application for providing a fax function, a printer application forproviding a printer function, and a device information notificationapplication, etc.

The software of the service layer 102 is interposed between theapplication layer 101 and the OS layer 103, and the service layer 102 issoftware for providing an interface for using the hardware resources ofthe main body 10, to the applications. More specifically, the servicelayer 102 is software for providing functions to accept operationrequests for hardware resources and to arbitrate operation requests. Asan operation request accepted by the service layer 102, there may be arequest such as reading by a scanner or printing by a plotter.

Note that the interface function of the service layer 102 is providednot only to the application layer 101 of the main body 10, but also toan application layer 201 of the operation unit 20. That is, theapplication layer 201 (application) of the operation unit 20 can alsoimplement the function of using the hardware resources (for example, theengine unit 17) of the main body 10 via the interface function of theservice layer 102. For example, the interface function of the servicelayer 102 is provided by a Web Application Programming Interface (API).The operation unit 20 and the main body 10 can communicate by using thecommunication path 30 as a network.

The software of the OS layer 103 is basic software (operating system(OS)) for providing basic functions for controlling the hardware of themain body 10. The software of the service layer 102 converts usagerequests for hardware resources from various applications, into commandsinterpretable by the OS layer 103, and transfers the commands to the OSlayer 103. Then, as the command is executed by the software of the OSlayer 103, the hardware resource performs the operation according to therequest of the application.

Similarly, the operation unit 20 includes the application layer 201, aservice layer 202, and an OS layer 203. The application layer 201, theservice layer 202, and the OS layer 203 included in the operation unit20 have a hierarchical structure similar to that of the main body 10.However, the functions provided by the applications of the applicationlayer 201 and the types of operation requests that can be accepted bythe service layer 202 are different from those of the main body 10. Theapplication of the application layer 201 may be software for operatinghardware resources of the operation unit 20 to provide a predeterminedfunction; however, the application of the application layer 201 issoftware for mainly providing a function of a user interface (UI) (a UIfunction of a copier, a UI function of a scanner, a UI function of afacsimile, a UI function of a printer, and an initial setting UIfunction, etc.) and a browser function for performing operations anddisplaying information relating to functions of the main body 10 (a copyfunction, a scanner function, a fax function, a printer function and aninitial setting function). Here, the application of the applicationlayer 201 includes an information distribution application, etc.

Note that, in the present embodiment, the software of the OS layer 103on the main body 10 side and the software of the OS layer 203 on theoperation unit 20 side are different from each other in order tomaintain the functional independence. That is, the main unit 10 and theoperation unit 20 operate independently from each other by separateoperating systems. For example, it is also possible to use Net BerkeleySoftware Distribution (BSD) (registered trademark) as the software ofthe OS layer 103 on the main body 10 side, and use Android (registeredtrademark) as the software of the OS layer 203 on the operation unit 20side.

As described above, in the image forming apparatus 80 according to thepresent embodiment, since the main body 10 and the operation unit 20operate with different operating systems, the communication between themain body 10 and the operation unit 20 is performed as communicationbetween different devices, instead of by inter-process communicationwithin a common device. This communication corresponds to an operation(command communication) of transmitting the information (instructioncontent from the viewer) accepted by the operation unit 20 to the mainbody 10, and an operation of reporting an event from the main unit 10 tothe operation unit 20, etc. Here, the operation unit 20 can use thefunctions of the main body 10 by performing command communication to themain body 10. Examples of an event reported from the main body 10 to theoperation unit 20 include the execution status of an operation in themain body 10, and the contents set on the main body 10 side, etc.

Furthermore, in the present embodiment, since power is supplied to theoperation unit 20 from the main body 10 via the communication path 30,power control of the operation unit 20 can be performed separately(independently) from power control of the main body 10.

<Functions—First Embodiment>

Next, with reference to FIG. 6, functions of each apparatus in theinformation distribution system 100 will be described. FIG. 6 is anexample of a functional block diagram of the image forming apparatus 80,the remote monitoring apparatus 40, the consumable item orderingapparatus 50, the consumable item delivery apparatus 60, and theinformation distribution apparatus 70 included in the informationdistribution system 100.

<<Image Forming Apparatus 80—First Embodiment>>

The image forming apparatus 80 includes the main body 10 and theoperation unit 20, and the main body 10 includes an externalcommunication unit 87, a basic function unit 88, a device informationtransmitting unit 89, and a main body communication unit 86 a. Each ofthese functional units of the main body 10 is a function or a meansimplemented as any one of the elements illustrated in FIG. 3 operateaccording to an instruction from the CPU 11 in accordance with a programloaded in the RAM 13 from the HDD 14. This program is distributed from aserver used for program distribution, or is distributed in a state ofbeing stored in a storage medium.

The operation unit 20 includes an operation accepting unit 81, an iconacquiring unit 82, an icon display unit 83, a content acquiring unit 84,a content display unit 85, and an operation unit communication unit 86b. Each of these functional units of the operation unit 20 is a functionor a means implemented as any one of the elements illustrated in FIG. 3operate according to an instruction from the CPU 21 in accordance with aprogram loaded in the RAM 23 from the flash memory 24. This program isdistributed from a server used for program distribution, or isdistributed in a state of being stored in a storage medium.

The external communication unit 87 is implemented as the CPU 11illustrated in FIG. 3 executes a program and controls the communicationI/F 15, etc. The external communication unit 87 exchanges various datavia the network 8.

The basic function unit 88 is implemented as the CPU 11 illustrated inFIG. 3 executes a program and controls the engine unit 17. The basicfunction unit 88 provides the basic functions of the image formingapparatus 80. That is, the basic function unit 88 provides functions ofprinting, scanning, and facsimile transmission/reception, etc.

The device information transmitting unit 89 is implemented as the CPU 11illustrated in FIG. 3 executes a program, etc. The device informationtransmitting unit 89 transmits device information to the remotemonitoring apparatus 40 via the external communication unit 87. Deviceinformation is described with reference to Table 1.

The main body communication unit 86 a is implemented as the CPU 11illustrated in FIG. 3 executes a program and controls the connection I/F16, etc. The main body communication unit 86 a exchanges various datawith the operation unit 20.

A storage unit 8001 included in the main body 10 is a storage meansimplemented by the HDD 14 in FIG. 3. The information display icon 90 andcontent are stored in the storage unit 8001.

The operation accepting unit 81 is implemented as the CPU 21 illustratedin FIG. 3 executes a program and controls the operation panel 27, etc.The operation accepting unit 81 accepts various operations from theviewer.

The icon acquiring unit 82 is implemented as the CPU 21 illustrated inFIG. 3 executes a program, etc. The icon acquiring unit 82 acquires theinformation display icon 90 from the information distribution apparatus70 via the operation unit communication unit 86 b.

The icon display unit 83 is implemented as the CPU 21 illustrated inFIG. 3 executes programs and controls the operation panel 27. The icondisplay unit 83 displays the information display icon 90 on theoperation panel.

The content acquiring unit 84 is implemented as the CPU 21 illustratedin FIG. 3 executes a program, etc. When the viewer operates theinformation display icon 90, the content acquiring unit 84 acquirescontent based on a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) held by theinformation display icon 90 via the operation unit communication unit 86b.

The content display unit 85 is implemented, for example, as the CPU 21illustrated in FIG. 3 executes a program to operate the operation panel27. The content display unit 85 displays the content acquired by thecontent acquiring unit 84, on the operation panel 27.

The operation unit communication unit 86 b is implemented as the CPU 21illustrated in FIG. 3 executes a program and controls the connection I/F26, etc. The operation unit communication unit 86 b exchanges variouskinds of data with the main body 10.

TABLE 1 MACHINE REMAINING COUNTER WHETHER THERE MODEL NUMBER TONERAMOUNT INFORMATION IS ABNORMALITY 3F55 111111 0% 50 NORMAL

Table 1 indicates device information in a table form. The deviceinformation includes items such as model, machine number, tonerremaining amount, counter information, and whether there is abnormality.The model is information for identifying the product name and theproduct category of the image forming apparatus 80, and the machinenumber is a manufacturer's serial number of the image forming apparatus80 in the machine type. Since the image forming apparatus 80 is uniquelyidentified by a combination of a model and a machine number, thecombination of a machine type and a machine number is identificationinformation of the image forming apparatus 80. The remaining toneramount indicates the remaining amount of toner of each color (the coloris omitted in the table) expressed in percentages, etc. The counterinformation is the cumulative print number of how many pages the imageforming apparatus 80 has printed in the past. Whether there isabnormality indicates whether there is an abnormality of the imageforming apparatus 80 (in a case where there is an abnormality, thecontent of the abnormality). For example, when the device informationhaving a toner remaining amount less than or equal to a threshold value,is transmitted to the remote monitoring apparatus 40, the remotemonitoring apparatus 40 determines to place an order for toner.Alternatively, a predetermined abnormality (referred to as eventinformation) indicating toner end may be transmitted as deviceinformation to the remote monitoring apparatus 40.

<<Remote Monitoring Apparatus 40—First Embodiment>>

The remote monitoring apparatus 40 includes a contract informationmanaging unit 41, a device information managing unit 42, a deviceinformation receiving unit 43, an order requesting unit 44, and acontract information transmitting unit 45. Each of these functionalunits of the remote monitoring apparatus 40 is a function or a meansimplemented as any one of the elements illustrated in FIG. 4 operateaccording to an instruction from the CPU 301 in accordance with aprogram loaded in the RAM 303 from the HDD 307. This program isdistributed from a server used for program distribution, or isdistributed in a state of being stored in a storage medium.

The contract information managing unit 41 is implemented as the CPU 301illustrated in FIG. 4 executes a program and uses the HDD 307, etc. Thecontract information managing unit 41 manages the contract informationof the image forming apparatus 80. The contract information will bedescribed with reference to Table 2.

The device information managing unit 42 is implemented as the CPU 301illustrated in FIG. 4 executes a program and uses the HDD 307, etc. Thedevice information managing unit 42 manages the device informationtransmitted from the image forming apparatus 80.

The device information receiving unit 43 is implemented as the CPU 301illustrated in FIG. 4 executes a program and controls the communicationI/F 304, etc. The device information receiving unit 43 receives thedevice information from the image forming apparatus 80.

The order requesting unit 44 is implemented as the CPU 301 illustratedin FIG. 4 executes a program and controls the communication I/F 304,etc. The order requesting unit 44 refers to the contract information todetermine whether a contract has been made for either consumable itemautomatic delivery or consumable item remaining amount informationprovision. When a contract has been made for consumable item remainingamount information provision, the order requesting unit 44 transmits theremaining amount 95 of a consumable item to the sales company server110. When a contract has been made for consumable item automaticdelivery, the order requesting unit 44 transmits the consumable itemordering information 97 to the consumable item ordering apparatus 50when the consumable item remaining amount is less than or equal to athreshold or according to a toner end event.

The contract information transmitting unit 45 is implemented as the CPU301 illustrated in FIG. 4 executes a program and controls thecommunication I/F 304, etc. The contract information transmitting unit45 periodically transmits the contract information managed by thecontract information managing unit 41, to the information distributionapparatus 70.

TABLE 2 TARGET OF CONSUMABLE TARGET OF ITEM CONSUMABLE REMAINING TARGETOF ITEM AMOUNT REMOTE MACHINE AUTOMATIC INFORMATION MONITORING UPDATEMODEL NUMBER DELIVERY PROVISION SERVICE TIME 3F55 111111 YES NO YES 2016Feb. 3 3F32 222222 NO NO YES 2016 Feb. 4 3F51 333333 NO YES YES 2016Feb. 5 3F11 444444 YES NO YES 2016 Feb. 6

Table 2 indicates contract information in a table form. The contractinformation is a table-like database in which the items of model,machine number, target of consumable item automatic delivery, target ofconsumable item remaining amount information provision, target of remotemonitoring service, and update time are one record. The model andmachine number are the same as those in Table 1. The target ofconsumable item automatic delivery indicates whether or not the imageforming apparatus 80 is a target of a contract for the consumable itemautomatic delivery service. That is, it is set whether a contract hasbeen made for (automatically) ordering a consumable item of the imageforming apparatus 80. Target of consumable item remaining amountinformation provision indicates whether the image forming apparatus 80is a target of a contract for transmitting the consumable item remainingamount to the sales company server 110. That is, it is set whether acontract has been made to transmit device information to a predeterminedinformation processing apparatus (sales company server 110). Target ofremote monitoring service indicates whether the image forming apparatus80 has subscribed to the remote monitoring service. The update timeindicates the time at which the contract information has been lastupdated, for each record.

As described above, since it is assumed that all of the image formingapparatuses 80 according to the present embodiment have made a contractfor the remote monitoring service, target of consumable item remainingamount information provision is a setting of whether the remotemonitoring apparatus 40 is to provide the remaining consumable itemamount to the sales company server 110.

Since it can be considered that the customer selects only one of theconsumable item automatic delivery service or providing the consumableitem remaining amount to the sales company server 110, a situation where“YES” and “YES” are set for these items in Table 2 will not occur.

Note that the contract information is input by a person in charge whosells the image forming apparatus 80.

<<Consumable Item Ordering Apparatus 50—First Embodiment>>

The consumable item ordering apparatus 50 includes an order requestreceiving unit 51, an order status managing unit 52, and an order statustransmitting unit 53. Each of these functional units of the consumableitem ordering apparatus 50 is a function or a means implemented as anyone of the elements illustrated in FIG. 4 operate according to aninstruction from the CPU 301 in accordance with a program loaded in theRAM 303 from the HDD 307. This program is distributed from a server usedfor program distribution, or is distributed in a state of being storedin a storage medium.

The order request receiving unit 51 is implemented as the CPU 301illustrated in FIG. 4 executes a program and controls the communicationI/F 304, etc. The order request receiving unit 51 receives theconsumable item ordering information 97 from the remote monitoringapparatus 40.

The order status managing unit 52 is implemented as the CPU 301illustrated FIG. 4 executes a program and uses the HDD 307, etc. Theorder status managing unit 52 manages the present consumable itemdelivery status 98. The consumable item delivery status 98 will bedescribed with reference to Table 3. Upon acquiring a delivery statusupdate request from the consumable item delivery apparatus 60, the orderstatus managing unit 52 updates the delivery status of the consumableitem delivery status 98 by applying the update request.

The order status transmitting unit 53 is implemented as the CPU 301illustrated in FIG. 4 executes a program and controls the communicationI/F 304, etc. The order status transmitting unit 53 transmits theconsumable item delivery status 98 to the information distributionapparatus 70.

TABLE 3 SCHEDULED MACHINE CONSUMABLE INQUIRY DELIVERY ORDER DELIVERYMODEL NUMBER ITEM NAME NUMBER STATUS DATE DATE 3F55 111111 BLACK 001SHIPMENT 2016 Oct. 25 2016 Oct. 27 TONER COMPLETED 3F55 111111 MAGENTA002 SHIPMENT 2016 Oct. 25 2016 Oct. 27 TONER COMPLETED 3F11 222222 BLACK003 NON- 2016 Sep. 25 2016 Sep. 27 TONER DELIVERY

Table 3 indicates information included in the consumable item deliverystatus 98 in a table form. The consumable item delivery status 98includes items such as model, machine number, consumable item name,inquiry number, delivery status, order date, and scheduled deliverydate. The model and machine number are the same as those in Table 1. Theconsumable item name is the name of the ordered consumable item. Theinquiry number is information for identifying the order for theconsumable item and corresponds to an order number. The delivery statusindicates what kind of status the consumable item is in, in thedelivery. The delivery status includes shipment completed, non-delivery(absence or refusal of receipt), and delivery completed, etc. The orderdate is the date and time when the consumable item ordering apparatus 50has ordered the consumable item. The scheduled delivery date is thescheduled date for the consumable item to be delivered. The scheduleddelivery date is uniquely determined depending on the location of theimage forming apparatus 80 and whether there is inventory (stock) ofconsumable items.

As an example, the consumable item delivery statuses are collectivelytransmitted, once a day, to the information distribution apparatus 70 bythe consumable item ordering apparatus 50. After the transmission, theconsumable item ordering apparatus 50 transmits the consumable itemdelivery status to the information distribution apparatus 70 at timingswhen the delivery status changes.

<<Consumable Item Delivery Apparatus 60—First Embodiment>>

The consumable item delivery apparatus 60 includes a delivery requestreceiving unit 61 and a delivery status updating unit 62. Each of thesefunctional units of the consumable item delivery apparatus 60 is afunction or a means implemented as any one of the elements illustratedin FIG. 4 operate according to an instruction from the CPU 301 inaccordance with a program loaded in the RAM 303 from the HDD 307. Thisprogram is distributed from a server used for program distribution, oris distributed in a state of being stored in a storage medium.

The delivery request receiving unit 61 is implemented as the CPU 301illustrated in FIG. 4 executes a program and controls the communicationI/F 304, etc. The delivery request receiving unit 61 receives a deliveryrequest from the consumable item ordering apparatus 50.

The delivery status updating unit 62 is implemented as the CPU 301illustrated in FIG. 4 executes a program and controls the communicationI/F 304, etc. The delivery status updating unit 62 transmits a requestfor updating the delivery status to the consumable item orderingapparatus 50. The deliveryman inputs the delivery status to a mobileterminal according to need, and the consumable item delivery apparatus60 collects the delivery status of consumable items during the deliveryfrom the mobile terminal held by the deliveryman to manage the deliverystatus in a real-time manner.

TABLE 4 INQUIRY DELIVERY DELIVERY NUMBER STATUS DATE 001 DELIVERY 2016Oct. 27 COMPLETED

Table 4 indicates the request to update the delivery status that istransmitted from the consumable item delivery apparatus 60 to theconsumable item ordering apparatus 50 in a table form. The deliverystatus update request includes items such as inquiry number, deliverystatus, and delivery date. The inquiry number is the same as that inTable 3. The delivery status is the newest delivery status reported bythe deliveryman to the consumable item delivery apparatus 60. Thedelivery date is the date and time when the consumable item has actuallybeen delivered to the customer. The delivery date can be left blank ifthe delivery status is updated before delivery. The order statusmanaging unit 52 of the consumable item ordering apparatus 50 can updatethe consumable item delivery status by using the inquiry number as akey. Further to these items, a scheduled delivery date, etc., may beincluded.

<<Information Distribution Apparatus 70—First Embodiment>>

The information distribution apparatus 70 includes a contractinformation receiving unit 71, an order status receiving unit 72, anicon information providing unit 73, a content request receiving unit 74,a content generating unit 75, and a content distributing unit 76. Eachof these functional units of the information distribution apparatus 70is a function or a means implemented as any one of the elementsillustrated in FIG. 4 operate according to an instruction from the CPU301 in accordance with a program loaded in the RAM 303 from the HDD 307.This program is distributed from a server used for program distribution,or is distributed in a state of being stored in a storage medium.

The contract information receiving unit 71 is implemented as the CPU 301illustrated in FIG. 4 executes a program and controls the communicationI/F 304, etc. The contract information receiving unit 71 receives thecontract information 99 from the remote monitoring apparatus 40.

The order status receiving unit 72 is implemented as the CPU 301illustrated in FIG. 4 executes a program and controls the communicationI/F 304, etc. The order status receiving unit 72 receives the consumableitem delivery status 98 from the consumable item ordering apparatus 50.

The icon information providing unit 73 is implemented as the CPU 301 inFIG. 4 executes a program, etc. The icon information providing unit 73generates the information display icon 90 based on the contractinformation and the consumable item delivery status, and provides theinformation display icon 90 to the image forming apparatus 80. Theinformation display icon 90 includes information such as a URL, etc., inaddition to image data of an icon recognized visually. The informationdisplay icon 90 will be described with reference to Table 5.

The content request receiving unit 74 is implemented as the CPU 301illustrated in FIG. 4 executes a program and controls the communicationI/F 304, etc. The content request receiving unit 74 receives adistribution request for the content from the image forming apparatus80.

The content generating unit 75 is implemented as the CPU 301 in FIG. 4executes a program, etc. The content generating unit 75 generates thecontent based on the contract information and the consumable itemdelivery status. Details will be described later.

The content distributing unit 76 is implemented as the CPU 301illustrated in FIG. 4 executes a program and controls the communicationI/F 304, etc. The content distributing unit 76 distributes the contentto the image forming apparatus 80 that has requested the content.

TABLE 5 INFORMATION INFORMATION INFORMATION DISPLAY ICON DISPLAY DISPLAYTAP CREATION ICON NAME IMAGE MESSAGE ACCESS URL TIME TONER ***.gifDISPLAY https://sample/ 2016 Oct. 25 DISTRIBUTION TONER index.hrml 10:15HISTORY DELIVERY HISTORY

Table 5 indicates information relating to the information display icon90 generated by the icon information providing unit 73 in a table form.The information relating to the information display icon 90 includesinformation display icon name, information display image, message, tapaccess URL, and information display icon creation time. The informationdisplay icon name is the name of the information display icon 90 for theviewer to identify the information display icon 90. The informationdisplay image is image data displayed as the information display icon90. The message is a character string displayed inside the informationdisplay icon 90. The tap access URL is address information of a resourceaccessed by the image forming apparatus 80 when the viewer presses theinformation display icon 90. The tap access URL may be referred to as alink destination or link information. The information display iconcreation time is the time at which the information display icon 90 isgenerated; since there is a possibility that the image forming apparatus80 acquires the information display icon 90 several times a day, theinformation display icon creation time is used to identify theinformation display icon 90.

Except for the information display icon creation time, the informationdisplay icon name, the information display image, the message, and thetap access URL are managed by the information distribution apparatus 70as static information.

<Operation Procedure—First Embodiment>

FIG. 7 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating the overalloperation of the information distribution system 100.

Step S1: The person in charge, who has sold the image forming apparatus80 to the customer, inputs the contract information to the remotemonitoring apparatus 40. The contract information managing unit 41 ofthe remote monitoring apparatus 40 accepts and holds the contractinformation.

Step S2: The contract information transmitting unit 45 of the remotemonitoring apparatus 40 transmits the contract information to theinformation distribution apparatus 70 at a fixed timing such as once aday. Alternatively, the contract information may be transmitted inresponse to a request from the information distribution apparatus 70.The contract information transmitting unit 45 transmits the contractinformation with respect to a new contract at a fixed timing such asonce a day, and also when the content of the contract changes, thecontract information transmitting unit 45 transmits the contractinformation at a fixed timing such as once a day. With respect to amodel and a machine number for which the content of the contract hasalready been transmitted, the contract information is transmitted onlyfor the model and the machine number for which the content of thecontract has been changed. That is, only the difference is transmitted.

Step S3: Furthermore, at a predetermined timing or when the deliverystatus is updated, the order status transmitting unit 53 of theconsumable item ordering apparatus 50 transmits the consumable itemdelivery status to the information distribution apparatus 70. Thepredetermined timings are fixed times of about twice a day. The orderstatus managing unit 52 of the consumable item ordering apparatus 50requests the delivery to the consumable item delivery apparatus 60 atthe timing when the order is requested from the remote monitoringapparatus 40. Therefore, between the previous transmission timing andthe next transmission timing, the consumable item delivery status of aconsumable item for which delivery has been requested, is accumulated.Only the newly accumulated consumable item delivery status istransmitted to the information distribution apparatus 70 at fixed timesof about twice a day.

Furthermore, when the order status managing unit 52 acquires thedelivery status of the consumable item from the consumable item deliveryapparatus 60 between the previous transmission timing and the nexttransmission timing, at the timing at which the delivery status isacquired, the consumable item ordering apparatus 50 transmits theconsumable item delivery status to the information distributionapparatus 70. However, the consumable item ordering apparatus 50 maywait for the next timing.

Step S4: The content generating unit 75 of the information distributionapparatus 70 integrates the contract information and the consumable itemdelivery status, by using the model and the machine number as the key.Accordingly, the contract information and the consumable item deliverystatus are associated with the model and the machine number.

Step S5: The icon acquiring unit 82 of the image forming apparatus 80makes a request to the information distribution apparatus 70 for theinformation display icon 90 at a predetermined timing to be describedlater.

Step S6: The icon information providing unit 73 of the informationdistribution apparatus 70 generates the information display icon 90 andtransmits the information display icon 90 to the image forming apparatus80. Details will be described with reference to in FIG. 14. Accordingly,the image forming apparatus 80 can display the information display icon90 holding the URL. Since the information display icon 90 is a widget(application) as described above, the information display icon 90 can bedisplayed as the image forming apparatus 80 executes the widget.

Step S7: The icon display unit 83 of the image forming apparatus 80automatically displays the information display icon 90 as the initialscreen on the home screen 401, after the activation of the image formingapparatus 80. Immediately after activation, the image forming apparatus80 does not have the information display icon 90 (the image formingapparatus 80 has not received the information display icon 90 from theinformation distribution apparatus 70), and therefore a predeterminedmessage, etc., is displayed (URL is not held). Upon receiving theinformation on the information display icon 90 in step S6, the icondisplay unit 83 displays the information display icon 90 based on thereceived information.

Step S8: The content acquiring unit 84 of the image forming apparatus 80transmits a content acquisition request to the information distributionapparatus 70 according to an operation by the viewer. In the presentembodiment, it is assumed that the content is acquired as the viewerpresses the information display icon 90. However, content may beacquired periodically or may be acquired immediately after theactivation. The acquisition request includes a model and a machinenumber. The content acquiring unit 84 communicates with the main bodycommunication unit 86 a via the operation unit communication unit 86 band transmits a content acquisition request to the main body 10, and theexternal communication unit 87 of the main body 10 transmits the contentacquisition request to the information distribution apparatus 70.

Step S9: The content generating unit 75 of the information distributionapparatus 70 generates content. In FIG. 7, the content is generated inresponse to the content acquisition request. Note that the content maybe generated in advance at fixed timings such as twice a day. When theimage forming apparatus 80, which has requested the content, has made acontract for consumable item automatic delivery, in the state of stepS7, the image forming apparatus 80 has not transmitted toner end(because the consumable item is not ordered), and therefore no contentis generated. When the image forming apparatus 80, which has requestedthe content, has made a contract for consumable item remaining amountinformation provision, the toner delivery status is irrelevant, andtherefore a remote monitoring service introduction content 404 isprovided. When the image forming apparatus 80 has not made a contractfor either the consumable item automatic delivery or the consumable itemremaining amount information provision, the consumable item deliverypromotion content 403 is provided. Details will be described withreference to FIG. 10.

Step S10: The content distributing unit 76 of the informationdistribution apparatus 70 transmits the content to the image formingapparatus 80.

Step S11: The device information transmitting unit 89 of the imageforming apparatus 80 transmits, to the remote monitoring apparatus 40via the external communication unit 87, the device informationindicating that the remaining toner amount is less than or equal to athreshold value or the device information indicating that the consumableitem has run short (out of stock), acquired from the basic function unit88.

Step S12: The device information receiving unit 43 of the remotemonitoring apparatus 40 receives the device information. When it isdetermined that the consumable item has run short (out of stock) basedon the device information, the order requesting unit 44 transmits aconsumable item ordering request including a model, a machine number,and a consumable item name (consumable item ID), etc., to the consumableitem ordering apparatus 50. Note that the transmission of the remainingamount of the consumable item to the sales company server 110 isomitted.

Step S13: The order request receiving unit 51 of the consumable itemordering apparatus 50 receives the consumable item ordering information97. The consumable item ordering apparatus 50 preferably immediatelytransmits a consumable item delivery request to the consumable itemdelivery apparatus 60. The consumable item delivery request includes amodel, a machine number, and a consumable item name (consumable itemID), etc.

Step S14: When the delivery status of the consumable item beingdelivered changes, the delivery status updating unit 62 of theconsumable item delivery apparatus 60 transmits the delivery status tothe consumable item ordering apparatus 50 according to need.

Step S15: As described above, the contract information transmitting unit45 of the remote monitoring apparatus 40 transmits the contractinformation to the information distribution apparatus 70. Byperiodically transmitting the contract information in this manner, theinformation distribution apparatus 70 can generate content according tothe newest contract information.

Step S16: As described above, the order status transmitting unit 53 ofthe consumable item ordering apparatus 50 transmits the consumable itemdelivery status 98 to the information distribution apparatus 70. Asdescribed above, by transmitting the consumable item delivery status 98periodically or according to need, the information distributionapparatus 70 can generate content according to the newest consumableitem delivery status 98.

Step S17: Since the information display icon 90 automaticallycommunicates with the information distribution apparatus 70, a summaryof the content is displayed on the information display icon 90. Theviewer sees the summary of the content and presses the informationdisplay icon 90. The operation accepting unit 81 of the image formingapparatus 80 accepts an operation, and the content acquiring unit 84transmits a content acquisition request to the information distributionapparatus 70 based on the URL included in the information display icon90. Details are the same as those of step S5. Note that when the imageforming apparatus 80 displays the remote monitoring service introductioncontent 404 described later, the image forming apparatus 80 accesses apredetermined URL, instead of accessing the information distributionapparatus 70.

Step S18: The content generating unit 75 of the information distributionapparatus 70 generates content. When the contract information indicatesthat a contract has been made for consumable item automatic delivery,the consumable item delivery status content 402 is generated. When thecontract information and the consumable item delivery status aresearched according to the model and the machine number received from theimage forming apparatus 80, it can be known that the shipment has beencompleted, and therefore the content generating unit 75 generates theconsumable item delivery status content 402 as illustrated in FIG. 11.Furthermore, when the delivery status updating unit 62 changes thedelivery status, the content generating unit 75 generates contentreflecting the newest delivery status.

Step S19: The content distributing unit 76 transmits the content to theimage forming apparatus 80.

<Sorting of Transmitting Consumable Item Ordering Information orConsumable Item Remaining Amount—First Embodiment>

FIG. 8 is an example of a flowchart for describing the operation whenthe remote monitoring apparatus 40 receives the device information. Theprocess of FIG. 8 starts when device information is received.

The order requesting unit 44 of the remote monitoring apparatus 40 firstrefers to the contract information based on the model and the machinenumber, and determines whether the image forming apparatus 80 has made acontract for consumable item remaining amount information provision(step S10).

When the determination in step S10 is YES, the order requesting unit 44transmits the consumable item remaining amount to the sales companyserver 110 (step S20).

When the determination in step S10 is NO, the order requesting unit 44determines whether the image forming apparatus 80 identified by themodel and the machine number has made a contract for consumable itemautomatic delivery, by referring to the contract information (step S30).

When the determination in step S30 is NO, the process is ended. When thedetermination in step S30 is YES, the order requesting unit 44determines whether it is necessary to order a consumable item (stepS40). That is, when the toner remaining amount in the device informationis less than or equal to the threshold value or indicates toner end, theorder requesting unit 44 determines to place an order.

When the determination in step S40 is YES, the order requesting unit 44transmits the consumable item ordering information 97 to the consumableitem ordering apparatus 50 (step S50).

In this manner, the remote monitoring apparatus 40 can change (switch)the route of the order for the consumable item according to the contractinformation.

<Communication Between Operation Unit 20 and Main Body 10—FirstEmbodiment>

The communication procedure between the operation unit 20 and the mainbody 10 will be described with reference to FIG. 9. As described above,the operation unit 20 communicates with the main body 10 via thecommunication path 30, and the operation unit 20 requests the main body10 to communicate with the outside. FIG. 9 is an example of a sequencediagram illustrating a procedure for the operation unit 20 to acquirecontents via the main body 10. The process in FIG. 9 starts when theinformation display icon 90 is pressed.

Step S1: The content acquiring unit 84 transmits a content acquisitionrequest to the operation unit communication unit 86 b.

Step S2: The operation unit communication unit 86 b transmits a contentacquisition request to the main body communication unit 86 a.

Step S3: The main body communication unit 86 a transmits a contentacquisition request to the external communication unit 87.

Step S4: The external communication unit 87 transmits a contentacquisition request to the information distribution apparatus 70.

Step S5: The information distribution apparatus 70 transmits content tothe external communication unit 87.

Step S6: The external communication unit 87 stores the content in thestorage unit 8001. Thus, when the storage capacity of the storage deviceof the operation unit 20 is small, the storage device of the main body10 can be used. Note that the external communication unit 87 determineswhether the main body 10 includes the HDD 14 as a storage device, andholds the contents only when the main body 10 includes the HDD 14. Sincethe storage capacity of the HDD 14 is large, it is possible to hold thecontent only when there is margin in the storage capacity.

Step S7: After transmitting the content acquisition request, the contentacquiring unit 84 monitors whether the content has been stored in thestorage unit 8001. Since the operation unit 20 acquires informationindicating whether the main body 10 has a storage unit (HDD) at the timeof activation, the content acquiring unit 84 inquires the main body 10only when there is the storage unit 8001. When there is no HDD 14 in themain body 10, the content stored in the RAM 23 of the operation unit 20is to be read.

Step S8: The operation unit communication unit 86 b transmits a contentread request to the main body communication unit 86 a.

Steps S9 and S10: The main body communication unit 86 a reads thecontent from the storage unit 8001.

Step S11: The main body communication unit 86 a transmits the content tothe operation unit communication unit 86 b.

Step S12: The operation unit communication unit 86 b transmits thecontent to the content acquiring unit 84.

In step S1, the content acquiring unit 84 transmits the contentacquisition request; however, the content acquiring unit 84 may read thecontent in the storage unit 8001 beforehand, and compare the contentgeneration time with the present time, and only after a predeterminedtime has elapsed, the content acquiring unit 84 may transmit the contentacquisition request to the main body 10. Thus, the communication loadand the processing load of the information distribution apparatus 70 canbe reduced. That is, if the predetermined time has not elapsed, steps S7to S12 are to be performed.

Note that the sequence in which the information display icon 90 isobtained is also the same. If there is an HDD, the information displayicon 90 is stored in the operation unit unless it is stored in the mainbody. However, the icon and content for the initial screen are stored inthe operation unit irrespective of the presence or absence of the HDD.

<Content Generation—First Embodiment>

FIG. 10 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a procedure in whichthe content generating unit 75 generates content. The process in FIG. 10is executed in steps S9 and S18 in FIG. 7.

First, the content request receiving unit 74 receives a contentacquisition request together with the model and the machine number (stepS10).

The content generating unit 75 refers to the contract information andthe consumable item delivery status integrated with the model and themachine number as a key, to determine the contract state (step S15).First, the content generating unit 75 determines whether the imageforming apparatus 80 has already subscribed to the remote monitoringservice. This is because the information distribution application may beexecuted and a content acquisition request may be transmitted, even whenthe image forming apparatus 80 has not subscribed to the remotemonitoring service.

The content generating unit 75 refers to the contract information andthe consumable item delivery status integrated with the model and themachine number as a key, to determine the contract state (step S20).

A. A Case of Consumable Item Automatic Delivery: YES and Consumable ItemRemaining Amount Information Provision: NO

The content generating unit 75 generates the consumable item deliverystatus content 402 illustrated in FIG. 11 (step S30). In this case,since the customer of the image forming apparatus 80 has made a contractfor the consumable item automatic delivery service, the informationdistribution apparatus 70 can provide the viewer with the deliverystatus of the consumable item.

B. A Case of Consumable Item Remaining Amount Information Provision: YES

The content generating unit 75 generates the remote monitoring serviceintroduction content 404 illustrated in FIG. 12 (step S40). In thiscase, since this is a contract in which the customer of the imageforming apparatus 80 provides consumable item remaining amountinformation to the sales company, the information distribution apparatus70 cannot provide the delivery status. Furthermore, there is a highpossibility that the image forming apparatus 80 is receiving theconsumable item automatic delivery service from the sales company.Therefore, the information distribution apparatus 70 generates theremote monitoring service introduction content 404. Since the imageforming apparatus 80 has already made a contract for the remotemonitoring service, when the viewer is the administrator, theadministrator has certain knowledge about the remote monitoring service.However, when the viewer is a general user, the viewer may not alwayshave the knowledge of the remote monitoring service. Therefore, byhaving the information distribution apparatus 70 distribute the remotemonitoring service introduction content 404, the remote monitoringservice can be introduced to a larger number of users.

C. A Case of Consumable Item Automatic Delivery: NO and Consumable ItemRemaining Amount Information Provision: NO

The content generating unit 75 generates the consumable item deliverypromotion content 403 illustrated in FIG. 13 (step S50). In this case,since the customer of the image forming apparatus 80 has only made acontract for the remote monitoring service, by introducing theconsumable item automatic delivery, usage of the automatic delivery canbe promoted.

Upon generating the content, the content distributing unit 76distributes the content to the image forming apparatus 80 (step S60).

Note that all of the contents are described in Hyper Text MarkupLanguage (HTML), script language, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), etc.The content is referred to as a Web page or a Web application. Thecontent may be a still image or a moving image.

<Screen Example of Content—First Embodiment>

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the consumable itemdelivery status content 402. The consumable item delivery status content402 has a per-toner type delivery history 501 and a delivery historylist 502. The per-toner type delivery history 501 is the newest deliveryhistory for each toner color. As illustrated in FIG. 11, the deliveryhistory of each color of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow is displayed.The viewer can easily confirm when the toner has been delivered for eachcolor.

The delivery history list 502 is a column in which past deliveryhistories are displayed in time series. The viewer can confirm the pastdelivery history of toner which is often used, for example, black.

The per-toner type delivery history 501 is generated as follows. Fromthe consumable item delivery status, the content generating unit 75identifies the record of the model and the machine number of the imageforming apparatus 80 that has requested the content. Then, each color issearched in an order starting from the newest order date, and the newestdelivery history is identified for each toner color. Note that the colorof the toner may be distinguished by looking at the product code orproduct name.

The delivery history list 502 is generated as follows. From theconsumable item delivery status, the content generating unit 75identifies the record of the model and the machine number of the imageforming apparatus 80 that has requested the content. Then, for example,the delivery history for the past one year is acquired in time series.

The per-toner type delivery history 501 and the delivery history list502 have fields of an automatic report date 503, a product name 504, anda delivery status 505, respectively. The automatic report date is theorder date in Table 3. The product name is the consumable item name inTable 3. The delivery status is the delivery status in Table 3. Thecontent generating unit 75 reads these information items from Table 3and generates content.

By viewing the consumable item delivery status content 402, the viewercan know the present status of delivery of a consumable item, wait withreassurance, and avoid duplicate ordering, etc. Also, since inquiriesfrom customers to the manufacturer of the image forming apparatus 80 arereduced, the cost of customer service, etc., can be reduced.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of the remote monitoringservice introduction content 404. The remote monitoring serviceintroduction content 404 is a Web page in which the remote monitoringservice is introduced. The viewer can obtain information on the remotemonitoring service in the Web page.

Since the icon information providing unit 73 attaches, in advance, theURL of the Web page of the remote monitoring service to the informationdisplay icon 90, the content generating unit 75 does not need togenerate the content.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of the consumable itemdelivery promotion content 403. The consumable item delivery promotioncontent 403 is an advertisement of a consumable item automatic deliveryservice. It is indicated that inconveniences (forgetting to order andduplicate ordering), which may arise unless a contract is made for theconsumable item automatic delivery service, can be improved. Also, theflow of the automatic delivery of a consumable item is displayed.

The viewer can be aware of the existence of the consumable itemautomatic delivery service by looking at the consumable item deliverypromotion content 403. Furthermore, since the frequency of processingorders from the customer by customer service on the manufacturer side ofthe image forming apparatus 80 is reduced, the cost of customer service,etc., can be reduced.

<Generation of Information Display Icon 90—First Embodiment>

For example, the information display icon 90 of the image formingapparatus 80 periodically communicates with the information distributionapparatus 70 to guide the viewer to display the content corresponding tothe contract state. The information display icon 90 displays what kindof content is displayed when the viewer presses the information displayicon 90. The information display icon 90 may be referred to asdisplaying the outline of the content.

FIG. 14 is an example of a diagram for describing the relationshipbetween the contract state and the information display icon 90.

(i) Has not Made Contract for Remote Monitoring Service

The information display icon 90 displays a message “Do you have anyproblems relating to toner?” In this case, such a message is displayedto prompt the viewer to make a contract for the remote monitoringservice. The information display icon 90 includes the URL of the webpage of the remote monitoring service, and when the viewer presses theinformation display icon 90, the browser is activated and accesses theweb page of the remote monitoring service.

The following (ii)-(iv) will be described assuming that a contract forthe remote monitoring service has been made.

(ii) No Contract for Consumable Item Automatic Delivery/No Contract forConsumable Item Remaining Amount Information Provision

The information display icon 90 displays a message “Do you have anyproblems relating to toner?” The URL of the consumable item deliverypromotion content 403 is included in the information display icon 90,and when the viewer presses the information display icon 90, the browseris activated to display the consumable item delivery promotion content403 (FIG. 13).

(iii) Has Made Contract for Consumable Item Automatic Delivery/NoContract for Consumable Item Remaining Amount Information Provision

The information display icon 90 displays a message “Display tonerdelivery history”. The URL of the information distribution apparatus 70is linked to the information display icon 90, and when the viewerpresses the information display icon 90, the browser is activated todisplay the consumable item delivery status content generated by theprocess of FIG. 10 (FIG. 11).

(iv) Has Made Contract for Consumable Item Remaining Amount InformationProvision

The information display icon 90 displays messages saying “Realizeincreased operation efficiency of output device! Do you know of a newsupport & service ‘@remote?’” The URL of the Web page of the remotemonitoring service is linked to the information display icon 90, andwhen the viewer presses the information display icon 90, the browser isactivated and accesses the Web page (FIG. 12).

<Procedure for Generating Information Display Icon 90—First Embodiment>

The information display icon 90 is generated by the informationdistribution apparatus 70. The image forming apparatus 80 requestsacquisition of the information display icon 90, and updates theinformation display icon 90 as needed.

FIG. 15 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating an operationprocedure of the image forming apparatus 80 and the informationdistribution apparatus 70 relating to the information display icon 90.

Step S1: The information distribution application is activated.Immediately after the activation, since the information distributionapplication is not communicating with the information distributionapparatus 70, the initial screen of the information display icon 90 isdisplayed. The initial screen of the information display icon 90 is thesame as that when the remote monitoring service has not been contractedyet. The position of the information display icon 90 does not overlap anicon of another application, and the OS automatically determines theposition of the information display icon 90. The viewer can move theinformation display icon 90 to any position.

Step S2: When the timing to acquire the information display icon 90 hasapproached, the icon acquiring unit 82 makes a request to theinformation distribution apparatus 70 to for the information displayicon 90. Note that in addition to the model and the machine number, theinformation display icon creation time is attached. The method of usingthe information display icon creation time will be described in a thirdembodiment.

The acquisition timing is, for example, as follows. After acquiring theinformation display icon 90, the information display icon 90 is acquiredin short cycles.

-   In the state in which the information display icon 90 has not been    acquired:    -   When the viewer presses the information display icon 90, once        per hour (first predetermined time)-   After acquiring the information display icon 90:    -   Acquire once a day (second predetermined time)

Step S3: The icon information providing unit 73 of the informationdistribution apparatus 70 generates the information display icon 90 withreference to the contract information as described above. In the case of“contract for consumable item remaining amount information provision: NOand contract for consumable item automatic delivery service: NO”, theicon information providing unit 73 sets the URL of the informationdistribution apparatus 70 as the tap access URL. In the case of“contract for consumable item remaining amount information provision: NOand contract for consumable item automatic delivery service: YES”, theicon information providing unit 73 sets the URL of the informationdistribution apparatus 70 as the tap access URL. In the case of“contract for consumable item remaining amount information provision:YES”, the icon information providing unit 73 sets the URL of the Webpage of the remote monitoring service as the tap access URL. As theinformation display icon creation time, the time when the informationdisplay icon has been created is set. It is assumed that the name of theinformation display icon 90, the information display image, and themessage are determined in advance.

Step S4: The icon information providing unit 73 of the informationdistribution apparatus 70 transmits the information display icon 90 tothe image forming apparatus 80.

Step S5: The icon display unit 83 updates the information display icon90 and displays the information display icon 90. That is, the message issuperimposed on the information display image and is displayed at theoriginal position. Furthermore, the information display icon 90 name maybe displayed near the information display icon 90.

Step S6: When the viewer presses the information display icon 90, theoperation accepting unit 81 accepts the pressing of the informationdisplay icon 90.

Step S7: Accordingly, the content acquiring unit 84 specifies the URLheld by the pressed information display icon 90, and accesses thecorresponding content.

Step S8: As described above, the content generating unit 75 of theinformation distribution apparatus 70 generates content according to thecontract information.

Step S9: The content distributing unit 76 transmits the content to theimage forming apparatus 80.

Step S10: The content display unit 85 displays the content on theoperation panel 27 by a browser, etc.

As described above, since the image forming apparatus 80 periodicallycommunicates with the information distribution apparatus 70 to displaythe information display icon according to the contract information, theviewer can determine whether to press the information display iconaccording to the message displayed when the viewer looks at theinformation display icon.

<Overview—First Embodiment>

As described above, the information distribution system of the presentembodiment can change the content to be distributed, according to thecontract state of the consumable item automatic delivery service, sothat the possibility of the viewer making an erroneous recognition canbe reduced. Furthermore, since the content to be distributed can bechanged in accordance with whether a contract has been made for theconsumable item remaining amount information provision, the of theviewer making an erroneous recognition can be reduced.

Second Embodiment

In the present embodiment, a case where the information distributionsystem 100 includes a plurality of consumable item delivery apparatuses60 will be described. FIG. 16 is an example of a schematic overallconfiguration diagram of the information distribution system 100. In thedescription with reference to FIG. 16, mainly the differences from FIG.2 will be described.

The information distribution system 100 of FIG. 16 includes a consumableitem delivery apparatus 60B, in addition to the consumable item deliveryapparatus 60. Since there are various and many locations of customers towhom consumable items are to be delivered, the consumable item deliveryapparatus 60 may request delivery of a consumable item to the consumableitem delivery apparatus 60B. For example, the consumable item deliveryapparatus 60 is operated by a company closely related to the informationdistribution system 100, and the consumable item delivery apparatus 60Bis operated by a cooperating company, etc., that contracts the deliveryfrom the consumable item delivery apparatus 60. The consumable itemdelivery apparatus 60B is also an information processing apparatus thatmanages delivery of consumable items.

The consumable item delivery apparatus 60 not only manages the deliveryof consumable items but also requests delivery to the consumable itemdelivery apparatus 60B. The consumable item delivery apparatus 60B,which has been requested to deliver a consumable item, causes to adeliveryman to deliver the consumable item. In this case, the deliverymay be successful or unsuccessful. When the delivery is unsuccessful,the consumable item delivery apparatus 60B sends a report indicating“non-delivery” to the consumable item delivery apparatus 60.Non-delivery means that a person in charge has visited the destinationseveral times but cannot deliver the consumable item due to the absenceof the recipient or the recipient refuses to receive the delivery.

On the other hand, when the delivery is successful, because there are alarge number of successful deliveries and because the delivery isusually successful, the consumable item delivery apparatus 60B does notsend a report indicating “delivery completed” to the consumable itemdelivery apparatus 60.

Therefore, in the case of non-delivery, the consumable item orderingapparatus 50 can report the non-delivery to the information distributionapparatus 70, but in the case of delivery completed, the consumable itemordering apparatus 50 cannot report that delivery is completed to theinformation distribution apparatus 70. For this reason, there has beenan inconvenience that the delivery status is not updated for aconsumable item delivered by the consumable item delivery apparatus 60B,even when the image forming apparatus 80 displays the consumable itemdelivery status content 402.

In the present embodiment, the information distribution system 100 thatcan display a delivery status in which the consumable item deliverystatus content 402 is updated in both cases of delivery completed andnon-delivery, will be described.

<Functions—Second Embodiment>

FIG. 17 is an example of a functional block diagram of the image formingapparatus 80, the remote monitoring apparatus 40, the consumable itemordering apparatus 50, the consumable item delivery apparatus 60, theconsumable item delivery apparatus 60B, and the information distributionapparatus 70 included in the information distribution system 100according to the present embodiment. In the descriptions with referenceto FIG. 17, mainly the differences from FIG. 6 will be described.

First, as described above, the information distribution system 100 newlyincludes the consumable item delivery apparatus 60B. The consumable itemdelivery apparatus 60B includes the delivery request receiving unit 61,the delivery status updating unit 62, and a non-delivery transmittingunit 65. The functions of the delivery request receiving unit 61 and thedelivery status updating unit 62 may be the same as those of theconsumable item delivery apparatus 60.

The non-delivery transmitting unit 65 determines that the deliveryman ofthe consumable item is unable to deliver the consumable item, inputs thenon-delivery, and sends a report indicating non-delivery to theconsumable item delivery apparatus 60. The non-delivery transmittingunit 65 is implemented as the CPU 301 of FIG. 4 executes a program andcontrols the communication I/F 304, etc.

Furthermore, the consumable item delivery apparatus 60 newly includes adelivery requesting unit 63 and a delivery result receiving unit 64. Thedelivery requesting unit 63 requests the consumable item deliveryapparatus 60B to deliver a consumable item (transfers the consumableitem delivery request 94). The customer to which the delivery requestingunit 63 requests the consumable item delivery apparatus 60B to deliverthe consumable item, may be determined in advance in an area, etc., orthe administrator may appropriately set the customer.

Furthermore, the delivery result receiving unit 64 receives anon-delivery report from the consumable item delivery apparatus 60B.When a non-delivery report is received from the consumable item deliveryapparatus 60B, the delivery status updating unit 62 of the consumableitem delivery apparatus 60 transmits a delivery status update request tothe consumable item ordering apparatus 50. The delivery requesting unit63 and the delivery result receiving unit 64 are implemented as the CPU301 of FIG. 4 executes a program and controls the communication I/F 304,etc.

<Operation Procedure in Case of Non-Delivery—Second Embodiment>

FIG. 18 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating the overalloperation of the information distribution system 100 in the case ofnon-delivery. In the description with reference to FIG. 18, mainly thedifferences from FIG. 7 will be described. The processes of steps S1 toS13 are the same as those of FIG. 7.

Step S13-2: The delivery requesting unit 63 of the consumable itemdelivery apparatus 60 transmits a consumable item delivery request tothe consumable item delivery apparatus 60B.

Step S13-3: In the case where non-delivery occurs at the consumable itemdelivery apparatus 60B, the non-delivery transmitting unit 65 of theconsumable item delivery apparatus 60B transmits “non-delivery” to theconsumable item delivery apparatus 60.

Step S14: Since the delivery status of the consumable item beingdelivered has changed, the delivery status updating unit 62 of theconsumable item delivery apparatus 60 sends a request to update thedelivery status to include the delivery status of “non-delivery”, to theconsumable item ordering apparatus 50.

The process of step S15 is the same as that of FIG. 7, and in step S16,the consumable item ordering apparatus 50 transmits the consumable itemdelivery status 98 to the information distribution apparatus 70 based onthe delivery status update request.

Step S16: The order status transmitting unit 53 of the consumable itemordering apparatus 50 transmits the consumable item delivery status 98to the information distribution apparatus 70, periodically or accordingto need. Therefore, the information distribution apparatus 70 cantransmit the content, in which the delivery status has been updated, tothe image forming apparatus 80 that has requested the content.

As described above, when the consumable item delivery apparatus 60Battempts to make a delivery but the result is “non-delivery”, a reportindicating “non-delivery” is transmitted to the information distributionapparatus 70.

<Operation Procedure in Case of Delivery Completed—Second Embodiment>

FIG. 19 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating the overalloperation of the information distribution system 100 in the case ofdelivery completed. In the description with reference to FIG. 19, mainlythe differences from FIG. 18 will be described. As illustrated in FIG.19, in the case of delivery completed, step S13-3 does not exist. Thatis, the state of “delivery completed” is not reported from theconsumable item delivery apparatus 60B to the consumable item deliveryapparatus 60. Therefore, the consumable item ordering apparatus 50performs the process of step S12-2.

Step S12-2: The order status managing unit 52 of the consumable itemordering apparatus 50 records the date (order date) on which theconsumable item delivery request has been transmitted, and when thedelivery status (non-delivery) has not been received for a certainperiod, it is deemed as “delivery completed”.

Therefore, in step S16, as in FIG. 18, the order status transmittingunit 53 can transmit the consumable item delivery status 98 to theinformation distribution apparatus 70.

In this manner, even when the consumable item delivery apparatus 60Bmakes the delivery and “delivery completed” is attained, a reportindicating “delivery completed” is transmitted to the informationdistribution apparatus 70.

<Consumable Item Delivery Status Content—Second Embodiment>

With reference to FIG. 20, the consumable item delivery status content402 in the case where non-delivery is included, will be described. FIG.20 is a diagram illustrating an example of the consumable item deliverystatus content 402. In the description with reference to FIG. 20, mainlythe differences from FIG. 11 will be described. The consumable itemdelivery status content 402 of FIG. 20 does not include a deliveryhistory list, but the delivery history list is displayed aftertransitioning to another screen. Details will be described withreference to FIG. 26.

In the consumable item delivery status content 402 of FIG. 20, “broughtback” is displayed in the item of delivery status 505. “Brought back”means non-delivery. The content generating unit 75 of the informationdistribution apparatus 70 determines the items of the delivery status505 based on the consumable item delivery status 98 transmitted from theconsumable item ordering apparatus 50. This will be described withreference to Table 6.

TABLE 6 DELIVERY DATA REPORT TYPE SEGMENT SEGMENT MEANING DISPLAYSPECIFICATION 01: DELIVER DO NOT SEE DELIVERY REQUESTED (1) SHIPMENTCOMPLETED HERE. (SCHEDULED DELIVERY Y/M/D) DISPLAY DATE OF “DELIVERYDATE” IN FFM FOR SCHEDULED DELIVERY DATE (2) DELIVERY COMPLETED IN ASTATE WHERE “NON-DELIVERY” IS NOT RECEIVED WITHIN 14 DAYS FROM SCHEDULEDDELIVERY DATE, DEEM AS DELIVERY COMPLETED 02: NON- 13: NON- WHEN ALLSPECIFICATIONS AND BROUGHT BACK DELIVERY DELIVERY ALL QUANTITIES CANNOTBE DELIVERED IN ONE UNIT OF SAME DELIVERY REQUEST NUMBER 02: NON- 14:CANCELLED WHEN ALL QUANTITIES OF ONE BROUGHT BACK DELIVERY AT SITESPECIFICATION CANNOT BE DELIVERED 02: NON- 15: CHANGED WHEN AT LEAST ONEITEM CAN CHANGED AT SITE DELIVERY AT SITE BE DELIVERED FOR ONESPECIFICATION

Table 6 indicates the codes and contents of the consumable item deliverystatus. Table 6 includes the items of data segment, delivery report typesegment, meaning, and display specification. The data segment indicatesdelivered or non-delivery, and the delivery report type segmentindicates subdivision segments of non-delivery. The order statusmanaging unit 52 of the consumable item ordering apparatus 50 sets thedata segment and the delivery report type segment.

The meaning item indicates the content of the combination of the datasegment and the delivery report type segment. This item is fordescribing the present embodiment, and the content generating unit 75does not have to refer to this item. The display specification indicateshow the combination of the data segment and the delivery report typesegment is displayed in the consumable item delivery status content 402.In the case of non-delivery, the content generating unit 75 refers tothe code of the consumable item delivery status and may set “broughtback” or “changed at site” in the consumable item delivery statuscontent 402.

When the item of data segment indicates deliver, there is a state inwhich shipment has been completed and a state in which delivery has beencompleted. The order status managing unit 52 determines whether thestate is shipment completed or delivery completed, as follows.

A. Shipment Completed

Immediately after transmission of the consumable item delivery request94, the state is determined as “shipment completed”. In this case, theorder status managing unit 52 sets the scheduled delivery date. Theformat of the scheduled delivery date is, for example, “YYYY/MM/DD”. Themethod of determining the scheduled delivery date will be describedlater.

B. Delivery Completed

When “non-delivery” is not transmitted from the consumable item deliveryapparatus 60 for a certain period of time (for example, 7 days, 10 days,or 14 days, etc.) from the scheduled delivery date, it is deemed asdelivery completed, and the order status managing unit 52 determinesthat delivery has been completed.

The order status managing unit 52 sets necessary information fordisplaying the delivery status 505 determined as described above, andthe order status transmitting unit 53 transmits the information to theinformation distribution apparatus 70.

The scheduled delivery date will be described. The scheduled deliverydate is as follows. In the neighboring area from the consumable itemdelivery apparatus 60 or 60B, when an order is made in the morning, thecurrent day will be the scheduled delivery date. When an order is madein the afternoon, the next day will be the scheduled delivery date. In amiddle distance area further away from the neighborhood, the next day ofthe order date will be the scheduled delivery date. In other longdistance areas, the second day after the order date will be thescheduled delivery date.

The consumable item ordering apparatus 50 includes a table in which theneighborhood, the middle distance area, and the long distance area areassociated with each other for each area, and the consumable itemordering apparatus 50 uses this table to determine the scheduleddelivery date according to the order date and the area of the customer.

Next, a toner icon 508 and a toner type 506 of the consumable itemdelivery status content 402 will be described. The consumable itemdelivery status content 402 of FIG. 20 includes items of the toner icon508 and the toner type 506. In FIG. 11 of the first embodiment, thetoner type 506 is the product name, and the product name of theconsumable item is directly displayed. In the present embodiment, amethod of displaying only the toner type 506 will be described.

First, an example of a method of displaying the toner type will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 21. FIG. 21 is a table required for thecontent generating unit 75 to create the toner type 506. In the table,items such as product code, product name, toner type, and toner icon areregistered in association with each other. If the content generatingunit 75 includes this table, it is possible to identify the toner typeand the toner icon from the item name (consumable item name) in theconsumable item delivery status 98.

However, product codes or product names are not given by a certain rule,and there are multiple types of product codes or product names.Therefore, it is not easy for an administrator of the informationdistribution system 100 to create such a table.

Therefore, the content generating unit 75 according to the presentembodiment determines the toner type 506 by using characters included inthe product name. Since a character string of the product name of thetoner type 506 is included in the product name, the toner type 506 canbe easily determined. Since the toner icon 508 corresponds to the tonertype 506 in a one-on-one manner, the toner icon 508 can be similarlydetermined.

FIG. 22 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a procedure in whichthe content generating unit 75 determines the toner type 506 and thetoner icon 508.

First, the content generating unit 75 compares the product name(consumable item name) in the consumable item delivery status 98 withthe character string “black” held beforehand, and determines whether“black” is included in the product name (step S10).

When the determination in step S10 is YES, the content generating unit75 determines that the toner type is “black”, and sets the black tonericon in the consumable item delivery status content 402 (step S20).

When the determination in step S10 is NO, the content generating unit 75determines whether the character string “cyan” is included in theproduct name in the consumable item delivery status (step S30).

When the determination in step S30 is YES, the content generating unit75 determines that the toner type is “cyan”, and sets the cyan tonericon in the consumable item delivery status content 402 (step S40).

When the determination in step S30 is NO, the content generating unit 75determines whether the character string “magenta” is included in theproduct name in the consumable item delivery status (step S50).

When the determination in step S50 is YES, the content generating unit75 determines that the toner type is “magenta”, and sets the magentatoner icon in the consumable item delivery status content 402 (stepS60).

When the determination in step S50 is NO, the content generating unit 75determines whether the character string “yellow” is included in theproduct name of the consumable item delivery status (step S70).

When the determination in step S70 is YES, the content generating unit75 determines that the toner type is “yellow”, and sets the yellow tonericon in the consumable item delivery status content 402 (step S80).

When the determination in step S70 is NO, the content generating unit 75determines whether the character string “red” is included in the productname in the consumable item delivery status (step S90).

When the determination in step S90 is YES, the content generating unit75 determines that the toner type is “red”, and sets the red toner iconin the consumable item delivery status content 402 (step S100).

When the determination in step S90 is NO, the content generating unit 75determines that there is no toner type corresponding to the productname. In this case, the toner icon 508 and the toner type 506 will beblank. In this manner, the information distribution system 100 candisplay the toner type and the toner icon in the consumable itemdelivery status content 402 even when the information distributionsystem 100 does not include a table that associates the product namewith the toner type.

<Overview—Second Embodiment>

As described above, the information distribution system 100 according tothe present embodiment can also update the delivery status of consumableitems delivered by the consumable item delivery apparatus 60B, and theimage forming apparatus 80 can display the consumable item deliverystatus content 402 in which the delivery status has been updated.

Third Embodiment

Since the size of the operation unit 20 of the image forming apparatus80 is not necessarily fixed, when the size of the operation unit 20 issmall, it may be difficult for the viewer to read the characters of thecontent. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the informationdistribution apparatus 70 that creates content according to the size ofthe operation unit 20, will be described.

Furthermore, in the case where the information display icon 90 is notacquired, the image forming apparatus 80 acquires the informationdisplay icon once per hour from the information distribution apparatus70. Thus, after activating the image forming apparatus 80 and afterreturning to energy saving mode, etc., accesses may concentrate from theimage forming apparatus 80 to the information distribution apparatus 70.Therefore, in the present embodiment, the information distributionapparatus 70 that determines the necessity of creating the informationdisplay icon 90 and that creates the information display icon 90 onlywhen necessary, will be described.

Note that the system configuration and the functional block diagram ofthe present embodiment are the same as those of the first embodiment, oreven if they are different, there is no problem in the description ofthe present embodiment.

<Procedure of Generating Information Display Icon—Third Embodiment>

FIG. 23 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating an operationprocedure of the image forming apparatus 80 and the informationdistribution apparatus 70 relating to the information display icon 90.In the description with reference to FIG. 23, mainly the differencesfrom FIG. 15 will be described.

Step S1: The information distribution application is activated.Immediately after the activation, since the information distributionapplication is not communicating with the information distributionapparatus 70, the initial screen of the information display icon 90 isdisplayed. The initial screen of the information display icon 90 is thesame as that when the remote monitoring service has not been contractedyet. The position of the information display icon 90 does not overlap anicon of another application, and the OS automatically determines theposition of the information display icon 90. The viewer can move theinformation display icon 90 to any position.

Step S2: When the timing to acquire the information display icon 90 hasapproached, the icon acquiring unit 82 makes a request to theinformation distribution apparatus 70 for the information display icon90. In the present embodiment, the size of the operation unit 20 isnewly transmitted. Immediately after the activation, the image formingapparatus 80 does not hold any information display icon creation time,and therefore a value such as “000”, which indicates that theinformation display icon creation time is not held, is set at theinformation display icon creation time.

Step S3: The icon information providing unit 73 of the informationdistribution apparatus 70 generates the information display icon 90 withreference to the contract information as described above. Details areillustrated in FIG. 24. In the present embodiment, there are cases wherethe information display icon 90 is returned as a response, and there arecases where only a message “newest” is returned as a response instead ofthe information display icon 90. When the information display icon 90 istransmitted, the information transmitted to the image forming apparatus80 is as illustrated in Table 5. However, as the tap access URL, adifferent URL may be stored, depending on the size of the operation unit20.

Step S4: The icon information providing unit 73 of the informationdistribution apparatus 70 transmits the information display icon 90 orthe message “newest” to the image forming apparatus 80.

Step S5: The icon display unit 83 updates the information display icon90 and displays the information display icon 90. That is, the message issuperimposed on the information display image and displayed at theoriginal position.

Step S6: When the viewer presses the information display icon 90, theoperation accepting unit 81 accepts the pressing of the informationdisplay icon 90.

Step S7: Accordingly, the content acquiring unit 84 specifies the URLheld by the pressed information display icon 90, and accesses thecorresponding content.

Step S8: As described above, the content generating unit 75 of theinformation distribution apparatus 70 generates the content according tothe contract information.

Step S9: The content distributing unit 76 transmits the content to theimage forming apparatus 80.

Step S10: The content display unit 85 displays the content on theoperation panel 27 by a browser, etc.

In this manner, the icon information providing unit 73 can set adifferent tap access URL according to the size of the operation unit 20,and can determine not to create the information display icon 90.Therefore, the information distribution apparatus 70 can transmitappropriate content according to the size of the operation unit 20, andit is possible to reduce the load of creating the information displayicon 90.

<Determination as to Whether to Create Information Display Icon—ThirdEmbodiment>

FIG. 24 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a procedure of theicon information providing unit 73 for creating the information displayicon.

First, the information distribution application detects an activationcompletion report (step S10). The activation completion report is forbroadcasting at once, to the applications, a report indicating thatactivation of the image forming apparatus 80 has been completed, fromthe management function of the applications of the image formingapparatus 80. The information distribution application does not acquirethe information display icon 90 within a predetermined period of timefrom the activation completion report, so as not to consume theresources of other applications that perform the activating process andthe returning process. Note that the information display icon 90 is notacquired for a predetermined period of time after returning from energysaving.

Next, the icon acquiring unit 82 determines whether the timing toacquire the information display icon 90 has approached (step S20).

When it is not the timing to acquire the information display icon (NO instep S20), the icon acquiring unit 82 waits for a predetermined time(step S30).

When the timing to acquire the information display icon has approached(YES in step S20), the icon acquiring unit 82 requests the informationdistribution apparatus 70 to acquire the information display icon 90(step S40).

The icon information providing unit 73 of the information distributionapparatus 70 receives the request to acquire the information displayicon (step S50).

The icon information providing unit 73 determines whether to create theinformation display icon 90 (step S60). That is, the icon informationproviding unit 73 compares the information display icon creation timeand the contract information update time, and determines whether thecontract information is newer than the information display icon. Whenthe contract information is newer, it is preferable to recreate theinformation display icon 90. Otherwise, there is no need to recreate theinformation display icon 90.

When the determination in step S60 is NO, the icon information providingunit 73 sends, to the image forming apparatus 80, a response indicatingthat the information display icon 90 is the newest information displayicon 90 (step S70).

When the determination in step S60 is YES, the icon informationproviding unit 73 newly creates the information display icon 90 (stepS80).

In this case, the icon information providing unit 73 creates a tapaccess URL according to the size of the operation unit 20 (step S90). Inthis manner, by changing the access destination of the image formingapparatus 80, it is possible to cause the image forming apparatus 80 todisplay the content corresponding to the size of the operation unit 20.

The icon acquiring unit 82 of the image forming apparatus 80 receivesthe information display icon 90 or a response indicating that theinformation display icon 90 is the newest information display icon 90(step S100).

The icon acquiring unit 82 determines whether the reception issuccessful (step S110). When the reception is unsuccessful, the iconacquiring unit 82 waits for a fixed time (step S120) and acquires theinformation again. When the reception is successful and the iconacquiring unit 82 receives the information display icon 90, the icondisplay unit 83 displays the information display icon (step S130).

In this way, by comparing the information display icon creation time andthe contract information update time, there are cases where it is notnecessary for the information distribution apparatus 70 to create aninformation display icon, and therefore the processing load of theinformation distribution apparatus 70 can be reduced.

<Example of Display of Contents by Operation Units of DifferentSizes—Third Embodiment>

FIGS. 25A and 25B are examples of diagrams illustrating examples ofcontents displayed by the operation units 20 having different sizes. Theoperation unit 20 of FIG. 25A has a size of 7 inches and the operationunit 20 of FIG. 25B has a size of 10 inches. Since these characters aresmall, visibility is bad for a manufacture machine number 601 and aninformation update date and time 602 in the image forming apparatus 80having the operation unit 20 with a size of 7 inches.

In the present embodiment, the 7-inch image forming apparatus 80accesses the tap access URL for generating the content of FIG. 25A.Accordingly, the character sizes of the manufacture machine number 601and the information update date and time 602 can be made the samebetween the content of FIG. 25A and the content of FIG. 25B. That is,the content generating unit 75 accessed from the 7-inch image formingapparatus 80 makes the character size of the manufacture machine number601 and the information update date and time 602 larger than thecharacter size when accessed from the 10-inch image forming apparatus80. Therefore, the deterioration in visibility of small characters canbe reduced.

Note that since the sizes of characters other than the manufacturemachine number 601 and the information update date and time 602 areoriginally large, the content generating unit 75 does not change thesizes of these other characters, between the case of being accessed fromthe 7-inch image forming apparatus 80 and the case of being accessedfrom the 10-inch image forming apparatus 80.

<Display of Consumable Item Delivery Status Content and Delivery HistoryList—Third Embodiment>

As described with reference to FIG. 20, the consumable item deliverystatus content 402 and the delivery history may be displayed on separatescreens. By setting the delivery history to be displayed on a differentscreen, the viewer can easily confirm the newest delivery status fromthe consumable item delivery status content 402.

FIGS. 26A and 26A illustrate examples of the consumable item deliverystatus content 402 and the delivery history list, respectively. FIG. 26Aillustrates the consumable item delivery status content 402. Theconsumable item delivery status content 402 includes the per-toner typedelivery history 501, a close button 507, a delivery history list button509, and a notification button 510. The information distributionapplication generates a frame 511, a background 512, and the closebutton 507 of the consumable item delivery status content 402; however,the content generating unit 75 of the information distribution apparatus70 creates the delivery history list button 509 and the notificationbutton 510 including the per-toner type delivery history 501.

The content generating unit 75 associates the delivery history listbutton 509 and the notification button 510 with URLs of the respectiveconnection destinations. When the viewer presses the delivery historylist button 509 and the notification button 510, the informationdistribution application accesses these URLs. Note that a URL forproviding information such as maintenance of the informationdistribution apparatus 70 is associated with the notification button510.

FIG. 26B illustrates a delivery history list screen 521. When the viewerpresses the delivery history list button 509, the informationdistribution application communicates with the information distributionapparatus 70 according to the associated URL, and the content generatingunit 75 generates the delivery history list screen 521.

The delivery history list screen 521 includes the delivery history list502, a return button 522, and the close button 507. Similar to theconsumable item delivery status content 402, the informationdistribution application generates the frame 511, the background 512,and the close button 507, but cannot generate the return button 522. Thereturn button 522 is a button for allowing the viewer to once againdisplay the consumable item delivery status content 402 that has beendisplayed by the image forming apparatus 80 immediately before, but theinformation distribution application does not have a mechanism forholding a tap access URL. This is because the information displayapplication displays information other than the information distributedby the information distribution apparatus 70, and therefore theinformation display application does not support the screen transitionunique to the information distribution apparatus 70. Therefore, even ifthe information distribution application displays the return button 522,the viewer cannot redisplay the consumable item delivery status content402.

Therefore, when generating the delivery history list screen 521, thecontent generating unit 75 generates the return button 522, determinesthe position in the delivery history list screen 521, and associates thereturn button 522 with a tap access URL. Therefore, when the deliveryhistory list button 509 is pressed, the content acquiring unit 84transmits the tap access URL held by the information display icon 90 tothe information distribution apparatus 70.

FIG. 27 is an example of a sequence diagram illustrating a procedure bythe image forming apparatus 80 for displaying the delivery history listscreen 521 from the consumable item delivery status content 402.

Step S1: When the viewer presses the delivery history list button 509,the operation accepting unit 81 accepts the pressing of the deliveryhistory list button 509.

Step S2: The content acquiring unit 84 transmits a delivery history listscreen acquisition request and a tap access URL to the informationdistribution apparatus 70.

Step S3: The content request receiving unit 74 of the informationdistribution apparatus 70 receives the delivery history list screenacquisition request, and the content generating unit 75 associates thereturn button 522 of the delivery history list screen with the tapaccess URL.

Step S4: The content distributing unit 76 transmits the delivery historylist screen to the image forming apparatus 80.

Accordingly, even if the information distribution application does notinclude a function to return to the original screen, the viewer canalternately display the delivery history list screen 521 and theconsumable item delivery status content 402.

Next, with reference to FIG. 28, a process by the informationdistribution application and information distribution apparatus 70 whenthe information display icon is pressed, will be described.

First, the viewer presses the information display icon (step S10). Theoperation accepting unit 81 receives the operation.

The content acquiring unit 84 determines whether the information displayicon has been acquired (step S20). This is because immediately afteractivation, even when the information display icon is displayed, the tapaccess URL, etc., has not been acquired.

When the determination in step S20 is YES, the content acquiring unit 84determines whether a model and a machine number are necessary foracquiring the content (step S30). This is because there are contentsthat do not require a model or a machine number. For example, the abovenotification button is for displaying common content that are unrelatedto a model or a machine number, and therefore a model and a machinenumber are unnecessary. The process in FIG. 28 will be describedassuming that the model and the machine number are necessary. Note thatwhether a model and a machine number are necessary depends on the typeof the information display icon that is pressed.

The content acquiring unit 84 sets the model and the machine number inthe tap access URL and accesses the information distribution apparatus70. For example, “?mid=3C66-700013” is added to the end of the tapaccess URL.

The content generating unit 75 of the information distribution apparatus70 generates content corresponding to the tap access URL (step S50).That is, one of the consumable item delivery status content 402, theconsumable item delivery promotion content 403, and an applicationexplanation content 405 (see FIG. 29) is generated (steps S60, S70, andS80).

When the content distributing unit 76 transmits the content, the contentacquiring unit 84 of the information distribution application receivesthe content, and the content display unit 85 displays the content (stepS90).

When the determination in step S20 is NO, since the information displayicon has not been acquired, the icon acquiring unit 82 performs theprocess in FIG. 24 (step S40). When the information display icon can beacquired by this process, the processes from step S30 and onward in FIG.28 are executed. In this way, when the information display icon ispressed when the information display icon is not held, the informationdistribution application can acquire the information display icon andcan subsequently acquire the content.

<Another Example of Information Display Icon—Third Embodiment>

FIG. 29 is an example of a diagram for describing the relationshipbetween the contract state and the information display icon 90. In FIG.29, the differences from FIG. 14 will be described.

(i) Has not Made Contract for Remote Monitoring Service

The information display icon 90 in this case is the same as that in FIG.14.

The following (ii)-(iv) will be described assuming that a contract forthe remote monitoring service has been made.

(ii) No Contract for Consumable Item Automatic Delivery/No Contract forConsumable Item Remaining Amount Information Provision

The information display icon 90 in this case is the same as that in FIG.14.

(iii) Has Made Contract for Consumable Item Automatic Delivery/NoContract for Consumable Item Remaining Amount Information Provision

The information display icon 90 displays a message “toner automaticdelivery status”. The URL of the information distribution apparatus 70is linked to the information display icon 90, and when the viewerpresses the information display icon 90, the information distributionapplication displays the consumable item delivery status content 402.

(iv) Has Made Contract for Consumable Item Remaining Amount InformationProvision

The information display icon 90 displays a message “toner automaticdelivery status”. This is the same as (iii). The URL of the informationdistribution apparatus is associated with the information display icon90, and when the viewer presses the information display icon 90, theillustrated application description content 405 is displayed. In thisapplication explanation content 405, “Toner automatic delivery serviceof the remote management service. An application to be exclusively usedby customer who has subscribed to this service” is displayed.Accordingly, the viewer can recognize that the information display icon90 has no meaning for himself.

Note that the content in FIG. 29 is merely an example, and specificscontents of the content may be appropriately set.

<Overview—Third Embodiment>

As described above, the information distribution system 100 according tothe present embodiment can provide content according to the size of theoperation unit 20, and when the information display icon 90 is thenewest, the information distribution system 100 does not create theinformation display icon 90, and therefore the processing load of theinformation distribution apparatus 70 can be reduced.

Note that not only the contents corresponding to the size of theoperation unit 20, but also contents corresponding to the functions(printer, copy, FAX, finisher, monochrome/color, double-sided printing,and aggregate printing, etc.) provided in the image forming apparatus80, may be created.

Furthermore, the server system may notify at least the update time ofthe contract information to the image forming apparatus 80, and theimage forming apparatus 80 may determine whether to acquire theinformation display icon. In this case, a response to the transmissionof the device information may be considered as the transmission timingof the contract information.

<Other Application Examples>

The information distribution system and the electronic device are notlimited to the specific embodiments described in the detaileddescription, and variations and modifications may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

For example, in the above embodiments, toner has been described as anexample of a consumable item; however, paper may be the consumable itemin some cases. Furthermore, a waste toner bottle for collecting toner onthe intermediate transfer belt and the photoconductor, and a fixing beltmay be consumable items. In the case of a projector being used as anelectronic apparatus other than the image forming apparatus, the lightsource lamp may be the consumable item in some cases.

Furthermore, besides merely displaying the information display icon 90,the image forming apparatus 80 may read a message by voice sound.

Furthermore, the screen examples illustrated in above embodiments aremerely examples, and it is possible to appropriately deform, replacescreen elements, add screen elements, and remove screen elements, etc.

Furthermore, the sales company server 110 may be an informationprocessing apparatus other than the consumable item ordering apparatus50 in the information distribution system 100. Furthermore, thetransmission destination of the information relating to the consumableitem may be the terminal of the administrator, etc. That is, thedestination of the information relating to the consumable item is notlimited to the server of the sales company.

Furthermore, the information display icon 90 may be a simple icon.Furthermore, the information display icon 90 may be referred to as abutton, an object, and a soft key, etc., and the name need not be anicon. Furthermore, the information display icon 90 may be pressed bypressing a hard key.

Furthermore, the configuration example of FIG. 6, etc., is dividedaccording to the main functions in order to facilitate understanding ofprocesses by the information distribution system 100. The invention ofthe present application is not limited by the method of division of theprocessing units or the names of the processing units. The processes ofthe information distribution system 100 can be divided into moreprocessing units according to the processing contents. It is alsopossible to divide one processing unit to include more processes.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the remote monitoring apparatus 40, theconsumable item ordering apparatus 50, the consumable item deliveryapparatus 60, and the information distribution apparatus 70 may berespectively implemented by separate information processing apparatuses,or two or more of these apparatuses may be implemented by oneinformation processing apparatus. Furthermore, these apparatuses may beimplemented by more information processing apparatuses than thoseillustrated in FIG. 2.

Note that the content acquiring unit 84 is an example of an informationrequester, the content display unit 85 is an example of an informationdisplayer, the contract information receiving unit 71 is an example of acontract information acquirer, the content generating unit 75 is anexample of an information generator, the content distributing unit 76 isan example of an information distributer, and the device informationtransmitting unit 89 is an example of a device information transmitter.The information display icon 90 is an example of a display component,the icon acquiring unit 82 is an example of a display componentinformation acquirer, the icon display unit 83 is an example of adisplay component displayer, the icon information providing unit 73 isan example of a display component information provider, and the deliverystatus updating unit 62 is an example of an updater. The delivery resultreceiving unit 64 is an example of a delivery result receiver.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, an informationproviding system by which erroneous recognition can be avoided, isprovided.

The information distribution system and the electronic device are notlimited to the specific embodiments described in the detaileddescription, and variations and modifications may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. An information distribution system comprising: anelectronic device; and a server system including at least oneinformation distribution apparatus that communicates with the electronicdevice via a network, wherein the electronic device includes: aninformation requester configured to transmit, to the server system, arequest to distribute information, the request being transmittedtogether with identification information of the electronic device; andan information displayer configured to display, on a display device, theinformation transmitted from the server system, and wherein the serversystem includes: a contract information acquirer configured to acquirecontract information relating to a contract for a service provided tothe electronic device; an information generator configured to identifythe contract information of the electronic device based on theidentification information, and generate the information according tothe contract information; and an information distributor configured todistribute the information generated by the information generator, tothe electronic device.
 2. The information distribution system accordingto claim 1, wherein the electronic device includes a first deviceinformation transmitter configured to transmit, to the server system,device information relating to the electronic device, the contractinformation includes a setting indicating whether the contract is fortransmitting the device information to a predetermined informationprocessing apparatus, the server system includes a second deviceinformation transmitter configured to transmit the device information tothe predetermined information processing apparatus set in the contractinformation, and the information generator changes the information to begenerated according to whether the contract is for transmitting thedevice information to the predetermined information processingapparatus.
 3. The information distribution system according to claim 2,wherein the contract information includes a setting indicating whetherthe contract is for ordering a consumable item of the electronic device,and the information generator changes the information to be generatedaccording to whether the contract is for ordering the consumable item orthe contract is not for ordering the consumable item.
 4. The informationdistribution system according to claim 3, wherein the informationgenerator acquires a delivery status of the consumable item of theelectronic device and generates the information relating to the deliverystatus of the consumable item, upon determining that the contract is forordering the consumable item and not for transmitting the deviceinformation to the predetermined information processing apparatus. 5.The information distribution system according to claim 4, wherein theserver system includes an updater configured to update the deliverystatus of the consumable item, and the information generator generatesthe information relating to the delivery status of the consumable item,upon applying the updated delivery status to the delivery status, inresponse to the delivery status being updated by the updater.
 6. Theinformation distribution system according to claim 5, wherein the serversystem includes a delivery result receiver configured to receive amessage indicating non-delivery when delivery of the consumable item isunsuccessful, the message indicating non-delivery being received from aconsumable item delivery apparatus configured to manage delivery of theconsumable item, the consumable item delivery apparatus being includedin the server system, and wherein when the message indicatingnon-delivery is not received by the delivery result receiver from theconsumable item delivery apparatus for a predetermined period from whena delivery request has been made to the consumable item deliveryapparatus, the updater determines that delivery of the consumable itemhas been completed, and transmits a report indicating delivery completedto the information generator, and the information generator generatesthe information relating to the delivery status of the consumable item,upon applying the report indicating delivery completed to the deliverystatus.
 7. The information distribution system according to claim 5,wherein the updater periodically reports the delivery status of theconsumable item to the information generator, and reports, to theinformation generator, the delivery status of the consumable item thathas been ordered after previously reporting the delivery status, and theupdater reports, to the information generator, the delivery status ofthe consumable item that has been updated, when the delivery status isupdated.
 8. The information distribution system according to claim 4,wherein the delivery status of the consumable item acquired by theinformation generator includes a product name of the consumable item,the information generator compares the product name with a characterstring held in advance, to determine a type of the consumable item, andthe information generator generates the information relating to thedelivery status of the consumable item in association with the type ofthe consumable item.
 9. The information distribution system according toclaim 3, wherein the information generator generates the informationrelating to a service of transmitting the device information from theelectronic device to the server system, upon determining that thecontract is for transmitting the device information to the predeterminedinformation processing apparatus.
 10. The information distributionsystem according to claim 3, wherein the information generator generatesthe information relating to a service of automatically delivering theconsumable item, upon determining that the contract is not for orderingthe consumable item and not for transmitting the device information tothe predetermined information processing apparatus.
 11. The informationdistribution system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic deviceincludes: a display component information acquirer configured totransmit a request to the server system to acquire, from the serversystem, information relating to a display component indicating a summaryof the information generated by the information generator, and a displaycomponent displayer configured to display the display component on thedisplay device by using the information relating to the displaycomponent, and wherein the server system includes: a display componentinformation provider configured to generate the information relating tothe display component according to the contract information, and toprovide the information relating to the display component to theelectronic device.
 12. The information distribution system according toclaim 11, wherein the display component information provider addsaddress information according to the contract information, to theinformation relating to the display component, and the informationdisplayer displays, on the display device, the information generated bythe information generator and acquired by accessing a resource of theaddress information, in response to accepting a pressing operation onthe display component displayed by the display component displayer. 13.The information distribution system according to claim 12, wherein whenthe electronic device accepts an operation of displaying otherinformation from the information displayed by the information displayer,the information requester transmits, to the server system, a request forthe other information, the request being transmitted together with theaddress information, the information generator generates the otherinformation and associates the address information with a return buttonof the other information, the information distributor distributes theother information to the electronic device, and the informationdisplayer of the electronic device displays, on the display device, theother information together with the return button.
 14. The informationdistribution system according to claim 12, wherein the display componentinformation acquirer transmits, to the server system, informationrelating to a function of the electronic device, when requesting theinformation relating to the display component to the server system, thedisplay component information provider adds, to the information relatingto the display component, the address information according to thefunction, and the information displayer accesses the resource of theaddress information and displays, on the display device, the informationrelating to the function, in response to accepting a pressing operationon the display component displayed by the display component displayer.15. The information distribution system according to claim 11, whereinthe display component information acquirer periodically acquires theinformation relating to the display component from the server system.16. The information distribution system according to claim 11, whereinthe display component information provider adds a time when theinformation relating to the display component has been generated, to theinformation relating to the display component, and provides theinformation relating to the display component to the electronic device,the display component information acquirer transmits the time to theserver system, when requesting the information relating to the displaycomponent to the server system, the display component informationprovider compares the time with an update time of updating the contractinformation acquired by the contract information acquirer, the displaycomponent information provider generates the information relating to thedisplay component upon determining that the update time is more recentthan the time, and the display component information provider transmits,to the electronic device, a response indicating that the informationrelating to the display component is newest, upon determining that theupdate time is not more recent than the time.
 17. The informationdistribution system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic deviceincludes: a main body including at least an image former, and anoperator configured to operate the main body, wherein the operatorincludes: an operating system (OS) and a central processing unit (CPU)that are independent from the main body, and an information distributionapplication and a browser that are operated by the OS and the CPU,wherein the information distribution application of the operator isconfigured to: acquire an image of an icon of the informationdistribution application from the server system at a predeterminedtiming and display the acquired image, transmit the identificationinformation of the electronic device in response to the acquired imageof the icon being pressed, and acquire content corresponding to theidentification information and display the acquired content by thebrowser.
 18. The information distribution system according to claim 17,wherein the predetermined timing corresponds to when the informationdistribution application is pressed or at an interval of a firstpredetermined time, when the information distribution application hasnot acquired the image of the icon, the predetermined timing correspondsto at an interval of a second predetermined time, when the informationdistribution application has acquired the image of the icon, and thefirst predetermined time is shorter than the second predetermined time.19. The information distribution system according to claim 1, whereinthe server system includes a server configured to manage the contractinformation, and the contract information acquirer acquires the contractinformation that has been updated from the server, without acquiring thecontract information that has not been updated.
 20. An electronic devicethat communicates with a server system including at least oneinformation distribution apparatus via a network, the electronic devicecomprising: an information requester configured to transmit, to theserver system, a request to distribute information, the request beingtransmitted together with identification information of the electronicdevice, and an information displayer configured to display, on a displaydevice, the information transmitted from the server system, wherein theserver system includes: a contract information acquirer configured toacquire contract information relating to a contract for a serviceprovided to the electronic device; an information generator configuredto identify the contract information of the electronic device based onthe identification information of the electronic device, and generatethe information according to the contract information; and aninformation distributor configured to distribute the informationgenerated by the information generator, to the electronic device.